By Diane Gasper-O’Brien
University Relations and Marketing
The Global Leadership Project, an initiative of The Center for Civic Leadership and the Department of Leadership Studies at Fort Hays State University, tries to schedule one of its major service projects for the year around a significant weekend in October.
This year might just top them all.
The seventh annual Swipe Out Hunger food packaging event is set for a two-hour period on Saturday, Sept. 15, in Forsyth Library.
The event was moved to September this year to coincide with the inauguration of FHSU’s new president, Dr. Tisa Mason. It also happens to be the same weekend as Family Day, where families come to campus to visit their students.
Fresh off her Friday morning inauguration ceremony, Mason and her husband, Bill, plan to participate in Swipe Out Hunger, a fun, hands-on event for a worthy cause.
In yet another collaborative effort between Fort Hays State and the Hays community, entire families and teams of students alike come to package the beans, soy, rice and vitamins into bags and prepare them for shipping.
“It’s great because it’s for all ages,” said Alex Kultgen, one of the student coordinators of the event. “Anyone can be a part of it.”
Kultgen, a junior from Waco, Texas, and Reilly Franek, a senior from Elbert, Colo., planned this year’s project, for a third consecutive year, as part of their job duties working for Global Leadership Project. FHSU partners with Numana Inc., a non-profit public charity in El Dorado, formed as an international hunger relief organization.
Numana allows higher education institutions to engage in fighting global hunger by packaging bulk food products that are brought to campus by a team from Numana. Last year, Fort Hays State packaged 30,000 meals that were sent to Haiti following Hurricane Matthew.
This year’s goal is to package 30,000 meals to be sent to El Salvador. The assembly line will begin at 10:30 a.m.
“I’m super excited,” Kultgen said. “It’s a great way to get people involved and a great way to have more people come and find out about the Global Leadership Project and to honor President Mason.”
Forsyth Library also will the site of the Dr. Mason Inauguration Exhibit, which will include letters and certificates of congratulations. That display opens Wednesday, Sept. 12, and will remain open through Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 27-29.
A worship service will kick off Friday’s inauguration day activites at 7:30 a.m at Celebration Community Church.
FHSU faculty and staff will begin gathering for the ceremony line of march at 9:15 a.m. in Cunningham Hall, and the inauguration ceremony is set to begin at 10 a.m. in adjacent Gross Memorial Coliseum.
Following the Swipe Out Hunger event, the inauguration weekend will conclude with Saturday’s football game vs. in-state rival Washburn University at 7 p.m. at Lewis Field Stadium.