Students volunteer as part of ‘Extreme Makeover’
Campus efforts to help with the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project in Logan continued Tuesday as volunteer students colored alphabet books to send to Tongan children.
Public relations senior Erin Didericksen helped coordinate the service effort and hopes to send a few hundred books to poor children in the South Pacific island.
The project is in response to ABC’s television makeover show which is filming in Logan this week. Volunteers will rebuild the Pauni family home in seven days for the television series. The selected family moved from Tonga 15 years ago.
Didericksen said she organized the event because she “wanted to do more than just help the family.”
Service Vice President Leah Enlzer said the Service Center helped out with the project by printing off the 200 alphabet book patterns from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ humanitarian service Web site. Each page has a picture of an object along with the letter of the alphabet the object begins with.
Volunteers colored the pictures according to recommendations from the humanitarian service Web site, Didericksen said.
The booklet project is important because some schools in the island country are still using books from the 1970s, she said.
“When [the family] heard that we were doing it they were really excited,” Didericksen said.
The group also organized a clothing drive to collect summer clothes to help disadvantaged people in Tonga.
As part of their public relations agency class, Erin and other seniors planned this week’s events to promote and help ABC’s cause.
“A lot of it is to raise awareness,” Didericksen said.
The producers of the show, as well as the members of the public relations class want USU students to get excited about the opportunity to help out a local family. She felt the university should be included in the event along with the rest of Logan’s community as it is such a big part of it, she said.
About 10 students showed up at 2 p.m. at the Taggart Student Center Sunburst Lounge to help with the coloring, Didericksen said. Some people took multiple copies home to their roommates, while some of the students at the blood drive colored them while they were waiting.
Deseret International, a voluntary organization specializing in distribution, will distribute the booklets.
There are still ways students can help out with the project.
“We just encourage them to donate their time and their money,” Didericksen said.
A benefit concert will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday featuring Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband at the Spectrum. Donations will be accepted and all proceeds will go to the Pauni family. Everyone helping out at the event is a volunteer and everything, including 2,000 hotdogs, inflatable toys and the entertainment were donated.
“It’s been amazing” Didericksen said.