Commitment to Community
Bridges to Prosperity - All Women's Bridge Build - Kibembe, Uganda
In the spring of 2019, Bridges to Prosperity - a non-profit who's vision is to eradicate poverty due to rural isolation - reached out to various companies accross North America, including PCL, looking for volunteers to help build a suspension bridge in eastern Uganda. I applied for the opportunity through PCL, and Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) invited me to come along! Here's B2P's website for reference: https://bridgestoprosperity.org/
Bridges to Prosperity decided to send an All-Women's Team to help inspire the women and children in the local community, so I had the pleasure of working alongside other young and professional engineers from across North America. It was such an incredible, challenging, rewarding, and fulfilling experience that I find it difficult to put it into words. In 2 weeks, the group of 10 other women, along with some local volunteers, built a 75m long suspension bridge over the Sironko River. Everything was done by hand - minus a handful of power drills, impact drivers, a grinder, and a circle saw! The 8.5m tall towers were even placed and winched up by hand. I'd love an opportunity to share my experience in further detail with you.
Baton Rouge Flood Relief - Our Lady of the Lake - Geaux Big
Throughout my undergraduate career, I happily had the opportunity to perform service in many different areas throughout the community. When the devastating flood hit Baton Rouge in 2016, the LSU Swimming and Diving team was one of the first groups of people out in the city helping clean out homes in our neighborhoods. I've also participated in Geaux Big Baton Rouge, and served as Team Leader for four years running. For this event, I organized a group of Student-Athletes called the "Geaux Givers" that went out into the community to perform a day of service varying from cleaning up the city, painting schools, and performing yard work for the elderly. As a Student-Athlete, I made an effort to inspire young children who aspire to be athletes one day. The swim team performed multiple hospital visits for children who currently couldn't go out and play due to health complications.
Baton Rouge Food Bank - Halloween BooZar/Thanksgiving with the Tigers - A Firefighter Christmas
I've recently become an active member of SWE (Society of Women Engineers) and it has given me more opportunities to give back to the community. For a team bonding event, we were able to help sort, pack, and ship off enough food for 15,000 families at the Baton Rouge Food Bank! It was an amazing opportunity to not only make connections with some of my peers but give back to the community that supports us as well. It was upsetting to learn, however, that the Baton Rouge Food Bank rarely gets donations from the Baton Rouge community during the non-holiday seasons. Please take the time to check out the amazing work the Baton Rouge Food Bank does, and click the link below!
Baton Rouge Food Bank - Donations Needed!
Speaking of the holidays - each year, I have participated in two annual events: The Halloween BooZar, and Thanksgiving with the Tigers. The Halloween BooZar is an event where Student-Athletes play Halloween Games and go Trick or Treating with local children from around the LSU campus. Each year, the Swimming and Diving Team puts on a Goggle Bottle Toss - a game where we throw goggles and try to loop them around water bottles! When Thanksgiving comes along, the Swim Team raises money for a local elementary school student whose family cannot afford to give their child Christmas presents. From there, we surprise the student, either at an LSU Basketball Game or a school visit! We also surprised the local Fire Department one year, by showing up to fire stations across the city with homemade Christmas goodies to show our thanks for their services. Nothing spreads joy that time of year like giving back.
