Lori Bledsoe is a Junior Integrated Studies major in Drama Analysis and History and Society. On campus she is a Community Assistant and Ohio Benefit Bank Counselor in the Center for Civic Engagement and a stage manager with the Theatre department. This is her first semester as a Connect2Complete Advocate!
When Lori grows up she wants to work in the community to help people receive the assistance they need and deserve. Lori wants to help others find ways to get themselves back on their feet and learn how to help others achieve the same. She chose to become a C2C Advocate because it allows her to assist students in utilizing the resources they have available to them, to make their day better and reduce the stress of being a first time college student. Lori's advice for incoming students is "To get involved! No matter if it is a club or a service project. Enjoy the college experience!"
Her favorite joke is: "Why did the flea cross the road? To get to the flea market!". Lori admitted to eating paste a child but we still love her just the same! Her favorite holiday is Halloween and her proudest moment was the day her daughter was born.
When asked "What is poverty and what causes or perpetuates it?" Lori replied with "Poverty to me is when an individual or family do not earn enough income to provide for themselves. I feel the causes are broad but sometimes it is because of unemployment, past criminal record with no second chance, death of a loved one (supporter) and/or drug addiction."
"If I could change one thing in the world it would be the way government assistance is received and applied for. I believe those who need it have it hard enough not being able to eat or take their child to the doctor. They should not have to be on hold or stand in line for 45 minutes to ask a question."
Lori is a Connect2Complete Advocate in Becky Richards' English 007, fundamentals of writing class. Her class completed their Civic Engagement project at Shared Harvest on Wednesday September 10th.
Shared Harvest is a food bank located on Route 4, about 15 minutes from the Miami Hamilton campus. Shared Harvest is not government funded which means they have to find alternative funding sources and participate in fundraising. One of their large fundraisers is a 5K Walk/Run called Panera-Thon! We assisted Ben Powers, Volunteer Coordinator & Backpack program facilitator, in preparing for the race by packing "Swag bags" that are given to the participants at registration. Ben likes to experiment with 'best practices' for packing and sorting which meant as the first group there that day we were the guinea pigs!
The swag bags were reusable fabric shopping bags stuffed with pamphlets, flyers, bandaids, crayons, tattoos and more! This first group had one person at each 'station' (station managers) and then several people that worked as 'walkers'. The walkers would pick up a bag and stop at each 'station' where a goodie was placed in the bag by the station manager. The 'walker' would then hand off the bag to the 'box-managers' for stacking. We figured out after about 100 bags that they must be stacked in an alternating pattern, similar to stacking binders, or else they would slide and tumble and create a great mess. Half way through the stacking we had to re-stack most of a the bags to reduce sliding.
Overall the team stuffed about 250 bags!!
Here are a couple pictures! The rest can be found on Flikr!
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| Ben showing the process |
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| Packing of the bags! |
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