Over the past decade, the Staff Council Outreach Committee (SCOC) at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) actively plans, solicits, and collects annual donations as a way to give back to the Columbus community.

Geneva Foster, Credentials Analyst for the Office of Recruitment and Admissions, leads the SCOC group with an intention to bring holiday cheer to those less fortunate within the community. The SCOC coordinates and organizes two community outreach efforts from the IUPUC campus.

Love Chapel – Jeans Day
Beginning in 2003, the SCOC requested monetary donations from IUPUC faculty and staff to purchase hams for the baskets distributed during the holidays by the local Love Chapel.

As the need became greater, SCOC developed a method to generate donations throughout the year. The idea, each month faculty and staff would pay five dollars and wear jeans on one Friday. In 2006, students were included in the challenge. In 2007, with the Vice Chancellor’s permission, a second Friday was added each month to the Jeans Day/Love Chapel ham drive. A record for donations was received in 2015 and since 2010 campus-wide generosity has made possible the purchase and donation of 1,200 hams.

IUPUC’s Angel Tree
In 2010, as a Salvation Army volunteer, Foster approached the Salvation Army with the idea of bringing a senior angel tree to IUPUC. “As a Salvation Army volunteer my daughter Nikki and I were asked to hang cards on the Angel Tree at the Fair Oaks Mall. As we began, we read some of the wants and wishes of the angels. To our surprise they were not children, but adults, mostly over the age of 60. Through the tears, we kept reading and at that moment starting adopting name cards for ourselves and family members,” remembers Foster. This year IUPUC adopted 105 senior angels.

To learn more about IUPUC, visit iupuc.edu.