Last Thursday Otterbein students were encouraged to bring more than just themselves to the party at the Old Bag of Nails College Night.
The finale event for Operation Otterbein, which helped raise supplies and money for soldiers in a K-9 unit stationed in Iraq, was held last Thursday at the Old Bag of Nails and it generated quite a crowd.
Donations of needed supplies for a unit were taken at the door and project coordinator, Matt Lofy, said the box he brought for donations that night was full by the end of the first hour of the event.
Operation Otterbein was held on campus from April 7 through May 1 and the finale event was a way of thanking all those who participated.
Last year, the project raised 500 lbs. of supplies for soldiers returning from Iraq.
This year, a K-9 unit was chosen at the request of Deb Pindell, Otterbein Copy Center supervisor.
Pindell's sister-in-law is currently stationed with the 586th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron in Iraq. The squadron is a division of the Air force and the 179th Infantry Battalion of the Army.
Lofy said that he thinks people were more inclined to donate because they realized they were helping out not only soldiers but animals as well.
The senior public relations major helped initiate the effort by writing a grant proposal for the project during the first week of spring quarter.
Although he was awarded the grant money to help execute the project he said a lot of people were willing to donate both time and resources.
Junior public relations and organizational communications majors, Allyson Kuentz and Alyssa Petrella, are the two additional students who helped spearhead the project.
"Matt asked me and I thought it was a great opportunity and a good cause," said Petrella.
"I've been in it from day one," said Kuentz, "this (type of work) is what we've done in class, so we put it to work. We planned out each week and executed it."
Petrella suggested holding the finale event at The Old Bag of Nails as a culmination of the project as well as to say thank you to those who participated.
She also enlisted the help of local Columbus musician Jonathan Hape, one of the featured musical artists at the finale event.
"He was more than willing and really excited to work with us," said Petrella.
The Old Bag of Nails donated the room for the effort and both musical acts performed free of charge.
Lofy, Kuentz and Petrella all said the biggest cost of the project will be shipping fees.
"For three weeks of doing this I've only had to spend fifty dollars, but I think I'm going to have to ask for more money. I haven't weighed everything, but I'm pretty sure we've exceeded the weight from last year," said Lofy.
Last year, the effort was funded mainly by donations from Greek organizations on campus. This year Lofy wanted to actively include the entire campus community.
The Campus Programming Board (CPB), Otterbein Greek community, the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), residence life, and Student Affairs all actively participated in the effort to raise donations.
"I think this (Operation Otterbein) means a lot for the school and in the four years I've been here I've found the organizations don't work well together, so we've tapped all of our resources," said Lofy.
Although the finale event has passed and the donation period if technically over Lofy said they would probably not ship the supplies until the beginning of next week. So far they have over 20 boxes to send over. If anyone would like to send in last minute donations or has questions about donating please contact Lofy, Kuentz, or Petrella.t&c;
