BY SANTI ELBOW | PHOTO FROM ST. VINNY’S FRIENDS
Student organizations play a significant role in getting the student body and community working together. The Friends of St. Vinny’s Food Pantry, Edgewood College’s student organizations, is one example of this type of collaboration.
The organization began in the spring of 2016.
St. Vinny’s Food Pantry started as a COR 2 class taught by Larry Larmer at Edgewood, but through the years, it developed from a course to a student-run organization advised by Larmer and student leader Alyssa Fiscus.
The purpose of the organization is to raise money to help neighbors in need. The group purchases, collects, and donates items such as clothes, food, and anything else, but the items most in demand are toiletries.
Larmer said, “We have found a community partner in St. Vinny’s, and every semester we organize and conduct a variety of projects by fundraising (and) donating, and over the years, we have also made some videos for exhibiting some of their programs. Some of them have even been good enough to make it on their website.”
Some of the activities students do off campus include helping with food pantries for St. Vincent de Paul and donations.
“I took the COR 2 class with Larry, which was when I first started getting involved with the friends of St. Vincent de Paul that began in spring of 2016,” said Fiscus, president of the organization. “Then in the spring of 2017, we started becoming an organization on campus because there were not enough members to keep it continued as a class.”
Fiscus said money has been raised through a raffle, and the turn-out was high. “Overall the group, so far this year, has donated $1,500 to the organization,” said Fiscus.
The St. Vincent De Paul organization started in Paris in 1835 when an epidemic of cholera left a devastating impact on the Paris community. Frederick Ozanam and his six colleagues decided to provide support on April 23, 1833. This young group of men adopted the name The Society of St. Vincent De Paul after the patron saint of Christian charity. The society of Saint Vincent De Paul expanded rapidly and began to spread to other countries. On March 5, 1854, the society of St Vincent De Paul made its way to the United States.
After the society arrived in the U.S., it opened an office in Milwaukee in 1848. The society started working in Madison by 1925.
The Friends of Saint Vincent de Paul organization reaches out to interested students through email. For more information regarding Friends of Saint Vincent De Paul or how you can get involved, you can contact either co-leader Alissa Fiscus (Afiscus@edgewood.edu) or Larry Larmer (LLarmer@edgewood.edu).
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