Spencer Schiller: On Deacon Disaster Relief Fund

By Spencer Schiller

A few weeks ago, after Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Harvey, the Las Vegas Shooting, extreme monsoons in India and all natures of man-made and natural disasters wrought international havoc, often affecting our own Demon Deacons, Wake Forest Student Government’s executive board decided to act. 

Parth Vaidya, our Chief of Staff, and myself, the President, found ourselves in a position where students were not only directly impacted by these disaster’s effects, but were ready to take part in an initiative to combat them.  Through several meetings with student leaders like Halle Butler, senior, and Maddie Ouzts, freshman, we formulated a week-long fundraiser benefitting both the American Red Cross and Tim Duncan’s Virgin Islands Hurricane Relief Fund. 

Students from Student Government, Traditions Council, Student Union, and OLAS came together forming this idea that came to be known as the Deacon Disaster Relief Fund, or DDRF for short!  Here, Wake Forest students, alumni, friends and family would be able to provide emergency relief through the mindset of pro humanitate. 

This initiative will take place from Thursday, October 26th, to Friday, November 3rd, kicking off with a dinner at Putters, a local Winston-Salem restaurant known for great ambience, from 5 PM to 9 PM that Thursday the 26th.  

On Friday, and throughout the rest of the week, students will be selling ribbons with customizable messages on them to be tied around the railings of Reynolda outside of the Pit for $2 as a sign of solidarity.  We also wanted to recognize Sydney Packard and the ladies of Kappa Delta for their help with creating fantastic shirt designs to be sold in front of the pit every weekday from 11AM-1PM along with these ribbons and 9:00 AM-11AM on the 3rd floor of Benson this Friday.  There are both long-sleeved shirts ($25) and short-sleeved shirts ($20) whose proceeds will go fully to the Deacon Disaster Relief Fund.  

Short Sleeve:

Long Sleeve:

We are sending out a link to another page where you can order a shirt if we run out during a second round!  As a final exciting reward, the Wake Forest Traditions Council has received a basketball signed by all members of Wake Forest University’s Men’s ACC Division I Basketball team as a reward to be given to the entity that donates the most amount of money to the Deacon Disaster Relief Fund!

We wanted to give a special thank you to Jorge Fournier, OLAS, Ben Weekley, Traditions Council, Jack Garvey, Student Union, Kate Hubbs, Student Union, and Kiya Khalil, Student Government, for all of their fantastic work as a cohesive team and group of leaders that made our vision come to life in just a few weeks! 

Attached are links to Student Government’s Venmo account and the DDRF’s online fundraising page:

We can’t wait for your participation and support of this worthy cause!

Link to venmo donations: @wake_sg

Link to Paypal donation platform: https://www.youcaring.com/americanredcrosstimduncanvirginislandrelieffund-990208?utm_campaign=buttonshare&utm_medium=url&utm_source=copy&utm_content=cf_cp_01

All donations will go 100% to the Deacon Disaster Relief Fund, Go Deacs!

Photos courtesy of: Spencer Schiller

• donation
• fundraiser
• philanthropy
• student government