The campaign focuses on gathering donations in the form of loose change, which donors can drop into plastic baby bottles found around campus and out in the community.
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Stephanie Limbers, a senior nursing major at the university and the team leader for the annual fundraiser, has been working with the project for the past four years and said she’s glad to assist parents through their pregnancies and help them get a good start.
“I really value the opportunity that I have to go out into our community and help the people that really need help,” she said.
Close to 200 bottles were distributed around the campus for people to drop spare change into on Jan. 22. The bottles will be collected this week, then all the donated change will be counted and given to the Pregnancy Resource Center to buy supplies for clients — like pregnancy tests and pre-natal vitamins — and provide counseling services.
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Rachel Parrill, an associate professor of nursing at the university and a board member at the resource center, said the project is also a way the center raises awareness about what they do and how they can help the community. She said using the bottles is a unique way to reach out and let people know what they’re trying to do.
“We want people to understand that we’re trying to reach families,” she said.
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Several other organizations in the community, as well as individuals, help in the fundraising efforts during the campaign, Parrill said. She said she and the board members at the Pregnancy Resource Center value what they offer, as it’s the volunteers and the students who really make the campaign successful every year.
“It really means a lot to us,” she said.
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