Student Governance Council partners to make a wish come true
By: JASON WATERS
Production Manager
Student governance council (SGC) has partnered with student activities council (SAC) to make a wish come true for a 5-year-old girl, Mackenzie. For the sake of privacy, Make-A-Wish does not provide her full name.
Mackenzie was born with Sickle Cell Anemia and has undergone a stem cell transplant. Mackenzie was then required to undergo numerous treatments after this transplant caused her to develop Graft-Versus Host Disease.
Mackenzie’s mother said she is now Sickle Cell free and has reduced her intake of medication.
Mackenzie’s one true wish is to go to Disney World and meet the Disney Princesses.
Kathryn Turek, president of Student Governance Council, said they are blessed to be in collaboration with Student Activities Council to make this wish come true.
“We are very blessed that we were able to work very well with our student activities council. Our student activities council has done so much to collaborate with us this entire semester on events that they want to host for us and then also in addition just give to the student body and allow them to have more of a community environment,” Turek said.
There is a committee of about 15 to 20 people on the side of SGC named The Dream Team, Turek said.
The Dream Team gets together individially and discusses ideas to make plans for campus activities, Turek said.
This would not have been possible without Phillip Campbell and Carolyn O’laughlin from campus life, Turek said.
“They have guided us a lot along the way. They are the glue to the entire project,” Turek said. “Our goal is $5,000 by May 6. We are almost at $3,000.”
The amount made at each event varies, Turek said.
“Each event ranges from $200 to $300. We’ve had some very small events but also some larger ones too,” Turek said.
SGC welcomed magician Peter Boie on April 1 and held an event to raise funds for Mackenzie.
“The magician was a very rare and big event that we hosted,” Turek said.
The council expected fundraising to pass the two to three hundred mark, Turek said, but they did not expect it to be close to a thousand – they were not expecting to make that much in one night.
SGC also hosted a dodgeball tournament on April 15.
“The wish wall downstairs surprises me every single time that we have an event. We sell the stars and I just put up more of the stars downstairs,” Turek said. “Seeing that expand and evolve is just basically how I feel but in a physical form. You get the ability to see all these people who have given towards it and it’s all on the wall.”
Stars can be purchased for $1, Turek said.
“When people buy it you just continually see it expanding. I’ve taken a picture of it after every event. It makes me more excited to be doing something like this. It makes me very grateful and thankful for the incredible team that we have and how powerful it is with combined effort. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with it and I just sit there and think, ‘I can’t believe we are doing something like this,’” Turek said. “Other times I just don’t know what to say. Everyone continuously surprises me and it’s just a physical form of that on the wish-wall.”
If you would like to find out additional information or to make a donation, campus life is located in the student center, room 221.
