CASSA ‘throws’ new event to benefit Houston homeless

The Cross-Cultural, Anthropology, Sociology Student Association (CASSA) is looking to lend a hand to those in need through its Backpacks for the Homeless Project. In an attempt to raise donations, CASSA introduced “Pies for Supplies.”

Pies for Supplies operates by selling raffle tickets for money in order to purchase the backpacks and supplies. In exchange, raffle ticket holders are rewarded with an opportunity to throw a pie in the face of a faculty, staff member or officer from a student organization, all in the name of charity.

“My current co-president, Ginnie Sandison, suggested the idea last semester after hearing of a couple up north that do the same thing on their own,” said Lisa Wilkins, the president of CASSA. “The couple posted a list of items that they generally put in backpacks, so we have been using that since last semester with some modifications because of the time of year and our different weather conditions.”

The standard items included in backpacks are as follows: socks, jacket (the windbreaker kind that easily fold up), non-perishable food items (such as crackers), toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, condoms (male and female), wet wipes, a comb, soap and toilet paper.

“Those are some of the must-haves for backpacks, but we, as an org, go out to thrift stores with the donated money and buy extra things like the backpacks themselves and plastic water bottles that we clean ourselves and fill with water to go inside the backpacks as well,” Wilkins said.

CASSA raised enough donations to fill 50-60 backpacks.

“We’ve gotten a fantastic response since adding the Pies for Supplies incentive, especially amongst the student orgs, like the Student Parent Association that just hosted a bake sale to raise money for their contribution to our backpacks,” Wilkins said. “We also got many students in the science department to talk their professors into being pied and the majority of our donations have come from them because of that.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_hUEOuJkqs]

The “Pieing” took place Dec. 3 with six willing participants: David Rachita, dean of students; Charlotte Haney, coordinator of the first year seminar; Stephen “Arch” Erich, professor of social work; Walter Thompson, lecturer in social work; Nhee Van, coordinator for international student services and programming; and Victoria Bishop, communications officer for CASSA.

“It’s a little sticky, but I was happy to contribute to a great cause,” Haney said.

Some of the raffle ticket holders expressed their enjoyment about throwing the pies.

“I’ve seen pieing in old movies, and it is far more fun than I thought it would be,” said Stuart Larson, associate professor of graphic design.

CASSA members will distribute the backpacks during the winter break to members of the community who are in need.

“Last semester we just divided the backpacks we made amongst our members and dispersed them ourselves,” Wilkins said. “I know that when I hand them out, I don’t have any specific criteria I’m looking for to decide who is ‘worthy’ of a backpack. I think anyone who is struggling enough to stand outside in Texas weather with a sign deserves any help we can give them, and I think a backpack full of useful items is the least we could do.”

Click here to view a slideshow about CASSA’s Backpacks for the Homeless project.