NASPA WRC

Today was the last day of the Student Affairs Professionals in Higher Education (NASPA) Western Regional Conference (November 9-12). This was my first regional NASPA conference, so to get more involved and meet people (AND work towards my social justice action project) I decided to volunteer with the Socioeconomic and Class Knowledge Community's Supply Drive. I coordinated with another student affairs professional from South Seattle to organize, manage, and deliver supplies to local organizations, including Evergreen State College, Thurston County Food Bank, and the University of Washington, Seattle campus. 

These are the supplies that I donated to the drive. Often times, supply drives are missing fresh foods, fruits and vegetables. Other items that are often needed in Seattle include rain and camping gear, baby foods and sanitary and personal hygiene products. Instant amen noodles tended to be one the most popular items because of its low price and ability to be adapted into so many different meals. 

My NASPA badge and the marketing we used to advertise the supply drive to conference attendees from both Region V and VI. We really wanted to help local organizations get the supplies they actually needed, so we called each one to see what their most popular items are and included those in our marketing efforts.

This is me sitting at the table to answer questions and collect supplies during the 4 days of the conference. While I didn't get the most visits because I didn't have candy or free pens to give away, people would stop by from time to time to drop off items. Many people gave monetary donations because they were unable to travel with other types of supplies, which is great so the local organizations can directly purchase what they need most. I also encouraged people to grab the shampoos and soaps from their hotel rooms if they weren't planning on using them, and those were the items we actually got the most of.

We didn't collect as much as we expected, but we got a good amount of monetary donations and lots of mini hotel hygiene products which we divided equally between the 3 organizations. We learned a lot about how to orchestrate a successful supply drive since ours didn't go as planned, and will hopefully be able to collect more supplies at the next conference. It wasn't spectacular, but I always tell myself that every little bit counts. Even if 1 person benefits from what we donated, it matters. It was a small win, in a bigger fight to end hunger and help those who are currently homeless or struggling to provide for themselves or their families.