Freshman Blake Jachman a member of College Park Scholars’ Public Leadership program said she wanted to raise money for mental health awareness because some of her friends have had mental health issues.
The College Park Scholars program hosted a volleyball tournament, which raised money for Community Crisis Services Inc. in Hyattsville. The center is a “a one-stop calling center for information and compassionate assistance for those in crisis,” according to its website.
The fundraising group knew they wanted to do some sort of fun competition that would appeal to everyone, but, Herrera said, it was much harder to agree on an organization.
“We spent two or three classes debating everything,” Olivia Herrera, an English major, said. “So we all tried to persuade each other, so it was a really extensive process.”
Jachman, a business student, said she didn’t want to choose between the CCS and another organization, which helps foster children, because she thought they were both such great organizations.
The process of choosing an organization to donate to involved research and visits from panelists from both of the two organizations to their Scholars class, Jachman said.
“I chose mental health awareness because … a lot of my close friends have gone through a lot of issues in the past couple of months,” Jachman said. “I think [mental health] is something that’s so underrated and it’s something that I’ve always found interesting, about the abnormal psychology aspect of it.”
Members of the Public Leadership Scholars program mostly attended the event. Freshman economics major Andrew Smith, also enrolled in the program, said he had some free time and was asked to come by a friend.
Herrera said a number of participants had dropped out of the tournament the day of, partially because some people decided to go home for Passover holiday, which started on Friday night. They were hoping for at least eight teams, though only six showed up.
The group put a lot of effort into organizing the event; Jachman said reserving La Plata Beach was a lot more difficult than one would think. Despite all their planning, the event’s date and time were changed, without any input from the students organizing the event.
“Reserving La Plata beach is one task that I would never hope that [anyone] has to go through,” Jachman said. “[It] makes you think about how these fundraisers, even though it might seem like a small fundraiser, how much work people have to put in.”
