By Alyssa Hoffman
Fact Checker

During the 2008-2009 school year, the St. Michael's College Student Association (SA) introduced the “Fix-it-with-Five” concept of taking $5 from every St. Michael’s student’s activity fee. After forming a committee focused on a mission to unite St. Michael’s with its surrounding community through logical change, Fix-it-with-Five has $10,000 it would like to donate to a local organization. Narrowed down to three final applicants, the committee invites the St. Michael’s community to an open-forum as each organization it explains why it deserves the $10,000 grant.

A $5 phenomenon

The SA proposed the idea to take $5 from each student’s activities fee and decide at the end of the year what the money would be donated towards. However the uproar of money fused out of student’s tuition created a negative impression on the SA’s objective. Senior Eric Larkin decided to take the idea and improve the concept by getting to the root of a problem and promoting change of Vermont's homelessness.

“I started petitioning students in Alliot to see if this was a way that students were interested in allocating their student activities fee,” said Larkin, founder of the Fix-it-with-Five committee.

Working with United Way, the committee developed a list of prospects that applied to the mission statement. Almost 100 letters were sent to Chittenden County organizations that provide living services and resources for the homeless. Over the next six weeks, the committee received 17 applications and the elimination process began by determining how related the organization was to the Fix-it-with-Five's mission.

“This was challenging because some of the organizations were banking the money towards their budget and we wanted to know it was going towards a specific thing,” said committee member and junior Leah Ziegler. “That way, we could easily assess how much of an impact we would have.”

The possibilities one organization could have with a $10,000 grant would allow opportunities for safer and healthier living situations in Vermont. It also important for the selected organization to widely influence and create a relationship with the St. Michael’s College community.

After re-reading, re-evaluating, and coming to an executive decision, the committee composed their final three applicants: Spectrum Youth Family Services, Neighborkeepers, and the Community On Temporary Shelter (COTS).

“We want to use students’ money to make a lasting, significant difference in the world around us while educating ourselves and the college about the issues around,” Larkin said.

Fix-it-with-Five's logo reaching out to St. Michael's College. (Photo courtesy of Leah Ziegler)

The results are in

The final three applicants were chosen for their relation to the Fix-it-with-Five mission of recognizing a problem and executing a plan to fix it. In Vermont's case, the state and federal funding drastically decreasing due to the recession signifies each organization's dependency.

Spectrum Youth and Family Services focuses on providing shelter and healthy resources for runaway teenagers in the Burlington area.

“Our goal isn’t to provide a teenager with a bed for the night,” said Spectrum Family and Youth Service Development Director Laura Latka. “It’s to help them re-chart their course in life and provide each youth with the skills, money and confidence needed to transition to healthy independent living.”

Neighborkeepers works with new established American families (mostly refugees) and train them in everything from healthy living to cooking classes.

“A $10,000 grant from St. Michael’s Fix-it-with-Five program will help NeighborKeepers’ Nutrition Literacy Project provide new Americans and community members struggling with a lack of resources the opportunity to develop positive health outcomes instead of needing handouts to achieve food security,” said Neighborkeepers Executive Director Hal Colston.

COTS has a mission to eliminate homelessness by providing shelter, loans, and other resources. With the $10,000 grant, COTS will be able to expand their funds of giving out small loans to help prevent homelessness.

“This definitely relates to our mission of going to the root of the problem,” Zeiger said.

Ten Minutes to convince

On Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in McCarthy Arts Center, Fix-it-with-Five and a representative from Spectrum, Neighborkeepers, and COTS will hold a panel of explanation as to why each organization should receive the grant of $10,000. Applicants will have ten minutes to fully explain their concept. The remaining time will be dedicated to a question and answer session between the audience and the panelists. After the panel, the campus will vote for whom they believe should be awarded the $10,000.

Fix-it-with-Five encourages all of the campus to attend the panel.

“I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for students to have their voice heard as every single student gets a vote on where they think their $5 should go,” Larkin said. “Students have also had the opportunity to serve on the committee, or attend our open meetings. It is a transparency that is uncommon.”

The committee plans to have posters made, send out E-mails, an information PowerPoint slide on the campus' cable bulletin, and information sheets on Alliot tables. In each student’s mailbox, an information sheet will hopefully influence word of mouth of this brand new idea St. Michael’s College can expand upon, benefit from, and give back to the surrounding community.