Fraternity Member Earns Helping Hands Award
Holland junior Colter Lubben is the recipient of the Helping Hands award that recognizes outstanding volunteer work in the community. Through his work in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity, Lubben led efforts to strengthen the group's relationship with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Gratiot and Montcalm counties.
Sponsored by the United Way, the award is given to someone who goes “above and beyond,” says Suzanne Derry, BBBS executive director, who nominated Lubben for the award.
Lubben approached Derry last year and spoke to her about his interest in creating a stronger relationship between SAE and the community.
“He said he wanted to do something that wasn’t all about him,” says Derry.
Lubben, the philanthropy chairman for SAE, conceived of the idea to form a partnership with BBBS.
“Although I did a lot of planning, it was because of the work of BBBS and its staff and the help of my fraternity brothers that I was able to successfully pull something like this off," says Lubben.
With the partnership, Lubben and the other SAE brothers participated in pumpkin painting, a science building tour, a fire station/police station tour, and game, movie and craft nights. In addition, the fraternity worked to raise money for the BBBS organization.
“I felt a sense of accomplishment and achievement,” says Lubben about receiving this award. “I along with many others worked extremely hard to make this partnership a great experience for the kids and the BBBS organization, as well as the members of SAE. I feel that this shows that fraternities are often times the driving force behind many successful community service events here on campus.”
Lubben hopes the strong relationship with BBBS continues to grow.
“Although the partnership was something small, I believe it was a step in the right direction for my fraternity in terms of our commitment to community service,” says Lubben.
BBBS of Gratiot and Montcalm counties also honored Zeeland junior Lance Jongekrijg, who was named Alma College Big of the Year.
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Posted: Mon, April 30th, 2012 at 8:35AM
