The Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA) at the University of Florida partakes in an annual, monumental task of organizing and hosting Residence Hall Week (RHW). A celebration of life in the residence halls, it began in the 1970’s as Dorm Week and has grown to be one of the largest programs at the University of Florida. For Residence Hall Week 2012 we had close to 1,000 people in total come out to the various events. RHW 2012 was held between March 20, 2012 and March 30, 2012 and the theme was conspIRHAcy. Listed are the nine events that made up Residence Hall Week 2012:

March 20- Leadership Reception March 21- Kick Off March 22- Movies on the Lawn March 23- Comedy Night March 25- Grill-lympics March 27- Mardi Gras March 28- IRHA Pageant March 29- Murder Mystery Dinner March 30- Tie N Tails

Each year, the RHW Directors and Staff choose philanthropy to support during the events that make up RHW. This year, they chose the Backpack Club of Gainesville as the RHW 2012 Philanthropy.

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Founded by Stephanie Covey, a University of Florida graduate, the Backpack Club of Gainesville aims to provide food to children who cannot afford it. Many students in the Gainesville community receive free and reduced breakfast and lunch at school through federal programs within the school systems. However, once they return home from school they often do not eat dinner or anything else due to lack of resources. The Backpack Club of Gainesville graciously works around the clock to fill children’s backpacks with various food and other items. Contents of the backpacks include storybooks, non- perishable food, and hygiene products. Once the backpacks are stuffed to capacity, the Backpack Club of Gainesville delivers them to different schools in the Gainesville area. This year, IRHA and the RHW Staff decided they wanted to support a local organization so that their efforts could be directly seen on the city level.

Jessica Marine, the RHW Philanthropy Director, and her committee have done an enormous job before, during, and after RHW to maximize the philanthropic efforts for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. First, a goodsearch.com account was created to benefit the Backpack Club of Gainesville. Goodsearch.com is a search engine that donates $ .01 for every search that is typed into the search engine. IRHA members, RHW Staff, and residents have been encouraged to use goodsearch.com in order to create additional donations for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. To date, goodsearch.com has raised over $180.00 for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. Next, she worked directly with each RHW Event Director to organize the philanthropic aspect of each event. She created a trifold board full of information about the Backpack Club of Gainesville that was on display at each and every RHW event. She also cleverly decorated mason jars as means to collect donations during RHW. Jessee Schmidt, Backpack Club of Gainesville President, even came out to speak at some of the RHW events. Each director worked with Jessica in brainstorming ideas on how to maximize the donation. The RHW Staff has successfully received at least $50 at each event (and even some non-perishable food items), proving just how successful the RHW Staff was at fundraising. Through RHW events alone, over $600 was raised for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. An additional $220 was raised through RHW t-shirt sales, totaling over $1,000 raised for the Backpack Club of Gainesville.

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This year, the primary goal of the RHW philanthropy was to raise over $500 for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. The RHW Staff is proud to admit that through everyone’s efforts over $1,000 has been raised for the Backpack Club of Gainesville. However, there was also a secondary goal to our RHW philanthropic efforts. The RHW Staff wanted to raise awareness for the organization here at the University of Florida and in the Gainesville community.

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Through publicity, word of mouth, and much more, the Backpack Club of Gainesville has gained an extensive amount of limelight on both the campus level and community level. Numerous members of IRHA have expressed interest in wanting to volunteer with the Backpack Club of Gainesville in the future. Not only has the RHW philanthropy benefitted the Backpack Club of Gainesville in the present, but we have also made a long lasting impact on their organization by increasing attention and recruiting future volunteers. Through raising over $1,000 and non-perishable food items, the Backpack Club of Gainesville will be able to fill over 100 backpacks to distribute throughout the Gainesville community.

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The RHW philanthropic efforts would not have been as successful if it wasn’t for all of the hard work put in by Jessica Marine and the entire RHW Staff. Overall, the fundraising efforts for the Backpack Club of Gainesville exceeded everyone's initial expectations. Compared to the last three years, this year's RHW has raised the most amount of money. That is due to the extensive amounts of dedication, perseverance, and commitment of the residents, IRHA members, and RHW Staff.

To improve the efforts for the future, even more publicity can be created to maximize the attention brought to the Backpack Club of Gainesville. Also, more members of the Backpack Club of Gainesville can come out to even more IRHA and RHW events in order to establish a more personal relationship with the residents and staff members.

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Philanthropic efforts like these demonstrated by IRHA’s RHW are easily adapted at other schools. Whether philanthropy is chosen for a small, large, or medium sized program, or simply if an organization decides to support philanthropy for an entire academic year, philanthropic efforts can always be utilized. The cost of these fundraising efforts was surprisingly just $20.00 and the staff was able to raise over $1,000. Poster boards are easily created to create publicity for the philanthropy, cans or jars can be used to receive donations, and a goodsearch.com account can be created for any organization in the community. This community service program can be easily and effectively adapted to schools both in the region and nation.

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