WESTFIELD — Westfield State University public relations students have raised $915 to help fund a Springfield-based nonprofit’s literacy program.
The project, which required students to raise awareness of a local nonprofit and design a fundraising campaign for it, was part of Professor Suzanne Boniface’s “Advanced Public Relations” class.
“This class is deemed a civic engagement class at our university, so every semester I pick out a nonprofit for students to work with,” she said.
This year, she picked Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services, and invited the nonprofit’s staff to speak to her class. According to Boniface, the staff said they were building a library and wanted books that were interesting, enticing, and fun for children to read. Her students decided it would be a good project to raise money for the books, which they would do as the “Literacy is Currency” campaign.
“The academic goal was to train these future public relations professionals in how to run a public relations campaign,” Boniface said.
The students decided to hold two events as part of their fundraiser. The first, on April 20 at the Holyoke Mall, had participants donate money, spin a wheel, and win raffle tickets. The second had participants donate money, play cornhole, and win a certain number of raffle tickets depending on their cornhole performance. That one was April 23, on campus at the dining hall. Raffled items included Stanley water bottles, beach supplies, and Westfield State gear.
Boniface could not give an exact number of books the $915 her students raised could buy, but she estimated it to be over 40.
In a statement April 23, MLK Jr. Family Services Director of Youth Programs Karon Forde showed enthusiasm for the campaign.
“We’re delighted to enhance our alliance with Westfield State University with the ‘Literacy is Currency’ initiative, reinforcing literacy’s crucial role as both an empowering tool and a source of excitement about reading, in line with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision that, ‘Education is the passport to the future,’” she said.
She added, “this project not only reflects our commitment to literacy but also supports our efforts to elevate reading levels and foster a love of reading among children in our afterschool program. We praise the students for their exceptional commitment to this cause.”
Since the 2017 fall semester, Boniface’s class has raised $18,000 for local nonprofits, including for the Westfield Food Pantry, Manna Community Kitchen in Northampton, Alianza in Holyoke, Rick’s Place in Wilbraham, Jewish Family Services in Springfield, and others. Classes have helped one nonprofit per semester for 14 semesters, even continuing with virtual events during the COVID-19 state of emergency.
Boniface said the experience will help students in the job market and teach them about the community.
“I think helping local nonprofits and different causes is a great thing for students to do before they graduate, that they learn about such needs that we have in our communities,” she said.
She is looking forward to it again next semester.