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Baylor Lariat W E ’ R E T H E R E W H E N YO U C A N ’ T B E
NOVEMBER 13, 2018 Opinion | 2 Victims come first When mass shootings occur, do more than just send prayers
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Arts & Life | 6 End of an Era Comic book icon Stan Lee dies at the age of 95; Marvel lives on
Foul on the Field Errors, fights contributed to football loss against Iowa State
Step up, step out
Biannual service event supports Waco community LIZZIE THOMAS Staff Writer While many students were picking up large trash residents can’t handle on their own with Keep Waco Beautiful or packing up the Art Center to move downtown Saturday, others helped individual residents. 2,100 volunteers served at almost 70 locations, the largest number of service sites in Steppin’ Out history, according to a Baylor press release. Steppin’ Out exposes students who are not already serving in the community to the value of those opportunities, but regardless of whether organizations retain their temporary volunteers, residents benefit from the biannual burst of help. Susan Barnes is a family friend of Maxine Crosby, the Waco resident a group of Baylor students helped for Steppin’ Out. Barnes became a part of the family’s life through Crosby’s grandchildren’s school 15 years ago. Saturday, Barnes delegated tasks and helped them figure out what needed to be done. “There’s a lot of junk and debris around ... The lady that lives here is 73 years old. She’s retired; she’s not able to get out and clean up herself,” Barnes said. The group of students and Crosby’s family members were working to clear Crosby’s lot of storm debris and overgrown brush. “The [Baylor students] came and cleared up different stuff that was in the backyard, lots of raking of leaves and lots of tree trimming,” Barnes said. “They just cleaned it up for her and made it a lot more presentable.” Emily Perkins, Crosby’s granddaughter, joined in the effort with the students and said the house and lot were in need of an overhaul and more man-hours than the family could provide. “They helped us bag up leaves, trash, other things that she doesn’t need,” Perkins said. “I’m just glad that they helped, because this is years of stuff — literally.” Though serving individual residents may not have the measurable impact or exciting progress that work with a local organization may provide, residents still appreciate the service. Belton senior Megan Taylor, executive director of Steppin’ Out, said in the press release that the relationships built while serving the community that hosts Baylor students are some of the most profound and valuable college experiences. “Our service event not only fosters a servant heart that is
Kick off your Sunday Shoez with Tri Delta
Jackson, Mo. senior Mason Turner (middle) and his fellow members of Kappa Sigma volunteer for Steppin’ Out in the Elm Mott community Saturday. Kappa Sigma was one of many organizations that volunteered during Steppin’ out, and the event had a total volunteer count of 2,100 working the sites.
explicitly visible beyond the Steppin’ Out event each semester but also grows Christian leadership in a unique way that is later
Pre-health partnership program will keep homeless in Waco warm BRIDGET SJOBERG
Reporter
Staff Writer
SHOES >> Page 4
translated world wide when our students graduate from Baylor,” Taylor said.
Don’t Freeze on this
MAYA BUTLER Students on campus dressed in their finest outfits and shoes for Delta Delta Delta sorority’s first “Sunday Shoez” semiformal at 7 p.m. Sunday in Russell Gymnasium. Multicolored balloons, decorative streamers and thumping beats transformed the gym into a space for dancing and social fun. An ice cream bar satisfied attendees’ sweet tooth while live cover band Overdrive sang popular tunes to the crowd. The new event replaced Tri Delta Gameday, a watch party and tailgate put on by the sorority in previous years. Houston senior and Tri Delta president Elaine Renberg explained why the sorority brainstormed a new on-campus event for the fall semester. “We wanted to create a new philanthropy event that met a need that we saw on our campus,” Renberg said. “We realized there’s no all-university semiformal that’s not a Western dance. [It’s] just a place to foster inclusivity and community and have a way for everyone to come together and enjoy a night at Baylor.” Nonprofit organization St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a pediatric center that researches treatment and cures for childhood cancers, serves as the sorority’s national philanthropy. According to the nonprofit’s webpage, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy for U.S. children. About 175,000 children ages 14 and under are diagnosed with cancer every year, with leukemia (a type of blood cancer) as the most common cancer afflicting children. One of the reasons Boerne senior Meredith Steward, philanthropy chair, decided to join Tri Delta was because of its national philanthropy. “My best friend passed away from a childhood cancer while I was going through rush,” Steward said. “That very next day, I went through the Tri Delta room, and they were talking about childhood cancer and what St. Jude does, and so I was just blown away. That really moved me to join Tri Delta because they’re just passionate about philanthropy.”
Vol.119 No. 25
MJ Routh | Photographer
Upon volunteering and witnessing the effects of homelessness on the Waco community, San Antonio junior Aleena Huerta decided she wanted to use her role at Baylor to make a difference. Huerta’s idea led to a campuswide blanket and jacket drive, organized through a partnership between Baylor’s Multicultural Association of Pre-Health Students (MAPS), American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) and Latino Pre-Health Student Association (LPHSA). Huerta serves as the pre-dental chair for LPHSA. The drive accepts blankets and jackets for donation and lasts until Friday, with the groups distributing the donations at Street Ministries’ Thanksgiving meal to benefit Waco’s homeless population. The easiest way to donate is to reach out to Huerta, Grimes, Iowa junior Therese Riesberg or Austin junior Betty Mekonnen via Baylor email to set up a dropoff time. Huerta’s inspiration for the drive came when she realized the difficulty
that results from being homeless during times of particularly cold weather. “The idea for the drive came about a few weeks ago during my shift at the Meyer Center homeless shelter,” Huerta said. “A cold front had come in,
come into the shelter freezing cold, asking for any type of jacket or blanket to keep them warm, and most of them had been outside all day and even slept in that weather with nothing. Having to turn people away and not having anything to give was a terrible feeling. After this experience, I went to Walmart and bought as many blankets, hand warmers, socks and gloves as I could and drove around Waco handing them out.” Huerta appreciates the opportunity to reach out to the homeless population in Waco and hopes the drive will make a difference in people’s lives. “Before I went home for fall break, I posted in my community Facebook page asking if anyone had any items that they’d be willing to donate, used or unused, and came home from break with 60 blankets and 30 jackets,” Huerta said. “At this point it was a lot to hand out on my own so I contacted my friends who also have leadership roles in prehealth organizations and together we put together the drive.” Riesberg serves as vice president of AMWA and hopes Claire Boston |Multimedia Journalist the drive causes students to reflect on the role of homelessness in the and it was 35 to 40 degrees and rainy Waco community and how they can for several days. Multiple people had best help.
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