Students and community members gathered in Memorial Student Union’s Stotler Lounge to pack stuffing into toy bears and tigers at “Caring, Bearing, and Sharing.”
For either $5 or a donation of five canned goods, participants had the opportunity to stuff their choice of bear, polar bear or tiger.
Monday evening’s event was hosted by the MU Student Unions Programming Board. This year marks the first where all funds and goods are going to Tiger Pantry, a Missouri Students Association auxiliary founded by MU students. In total, this year’s event raised $621 and 249 canned goods.
In years past, MUSUPB raised funds and canned goods through a partnership with a local food bank. Event coordinator and MUSUPB member Paige Foerstel said the switch to Tiger Pantry isn’t a diversion from previous editions of Caring, Bearing, and Sharing. They are still working with a food bank, only now it is is directly serving and representing the MU community.
“It’s an opportunity for us to make what we’re doing a little more localized,” Foerstel said.
Partnering with MUSUPB for the event is a good opportunity for exposure for Tiger Pantry, but more importantly it represents the ownership students have taken of the auxiliary since its creation, founder and MSA President Nick Droege said.
“Every part of campus is starting to feel like they are responsible for the success of the pantry and responsible for helping out the students that the pantry’s helping out,” Droege said. “We facilitated and gave the opportunity for students to take ownership of it, and sure enough they did.”
Of all the events that MUSUPB organizes, “Caring, Bearing, and Sharing” receives the biggest turnout of the lot, Foerstel said. Because of the large crowd that showed, the pantry receiving the donations collected a variety of items and a significant amount of funds.
This year was no different. Students and Columbia residents who had caught wind of the occasion began streaming in, filling up every table in the lounge. Bags of white, billowy stuffing quickly disappeared as attendees filled their tigers until the linings began to stretch.
Amelia Hauck, a Columbia resident and freshman at Jefferson Junior High School, has attended the Caring, Bearing, and Sharing event for the past three years. Her father, an MU employee, has made the event into an annual tradition.
“It’s really great that this is going to a good cause, and we get to do something cool in return,” Hauck said.
MU freshmen Lauren Sicht and Kayla Riel learned of the event through an email and said they thought the fundraiser was one-of-a-kind. Sicht, also a Columbia resident, said she had never heard of the event before but said she and Riel will attend the event in upcoming years.
The large attendance has much to do with the publicity efforts of MUSUPB, Foerstel said.
Caring, Bearing, and Sharing’s date, slated shortly before Valentine’s Day, is another proponent for its bolstered attendance, Foerstel said.
After participants leave with their animals plump with stuffing, Foerstel said she hopes they realize that they’ve helped not only a good cause, but also the members of the Columbia community.
“I hope that they can feel a little good about themselves, walking away knowing that they’ve made a donation,” Foerstel said.