MORRISVILLE, NY—After helping bring joy to children in need of care, the SUNY Morrisville Campus Activities Board (CAB) was recently honored with the 2018 Northeast Community Service Event of the Year award by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities (APCA).
SUNY Morrisville CAB received the honor for its “Bears for Children’s Hospital” event held during the college’s 2018 Day of Service honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Morrisville students stuffed teddy bears in build-a-bear fashion before donating them to the Springfield (Mass.) Shriner’s Hospital for Children, where they were designated for use in the toy room. The inventory of teddy bears donated to the hospital derived from a Valentine’s Day gift option CAB provided Morrisville students, who could personally stuff the teddy bears and purchase them for $5.
This is the second time SUNY Morrisville has received the prestigious award from APCA.
“I am so proud that we received the Community Service Event of the Year award because it helps show our students that we truly can help make a difference in someone else’s life,” said Marc Cianciola, Morrisville’s assistant director of student activities. “What makes Shriner’s Hospitals amazing is that they help kids not only be kids, but help them realize that, even in what must seem like an impossible situation, they can still achieve their hopes and dreams.
“My hope is for our students to come away from the experience learning that even the small things can make the world a better place. I’m proud that Morrisville could provide some of those moments for the children at Shriner’s Hospital.”
The award was presented during the annual APCA Northeast Conference, where Morrisville also took home a second-place award for its T-shirt design.
Accompanied by Cianciola and SUNY Morrisville director of student activities Rita Goyette, six student members of CAB attended the conference: applied psychology majors Ayanna Legare, of Bronx, and Zainab Jimoh, of Staten Island, who also serves as CAB chairperson; Kemi Olorunfemi, an individual studies major from Bronx; computer information systems student Justin Narh, of Bronx; Samuel Coffie, an entrepreneurship & small business management major from Bronx; and accounting student Dijae Ellis, of Brooklyn.
The conference provided CAB members with networking opportunities and creative ideas for future planning as they attended educational sessions, showcases, exhibit halls and cooperative buying sessions.
“Students learned many new skills and information, chose great acts to bring to campus for the spring semester, networked with other colleges from the northeast and learned to negotiate with agents,” said Goyette, who also serves as the APCA northeast cooperative buying coordinator.
For more information regarding the SUNY Morrisville CAB, please visit our student activities webpage.