 "Photo: Nicole Landini")
 "Photo: Nicole Landini")
University students, faculty and staff gathered at Bidwell Presbyterian Church on Monday, Nov. 2 to use the furlough day to do some good in the community. They called the event Furlough Frenzy.
“We could turn this kind of negative thing into a positive,” said Greg Cootsona, associate pastor at Bidwell Presbyterian Church. He put on the event through his college ministry, known as the Five Forty Five, and was glad to be a part of the day, he said.
After a home-cooked lunch made entirely from farmers market ingredients, participants signed up for one of three events they wished to be part of.
The options were packing “blessing bags” at the Jesus Center, painting for the holistic playground at Citrus Avenue Elementary School, or picking up trash in the north and south campus areas and around Bidwell Mansion.
“That’s what Furlough Frenzy is about,” said Dawn Clifford, department of nutrition and food science assistant professor and the mind behind Furlough Frenzy. “Taking lemons and making lemonade.”
At the Jesus Center, the plastic bags were packed with necessary items for those in need. Toothbrushes, deodorant, soap, combs, razors and other essentials were put into the bags by an assembly line of people.
Some students volunteered to help sweep the parking lot of the Jesus Center and others volunteered to install new baseboards in some of the rooms.
Ninety percent of the items were donated, said Rich Young, assistant director of the Jesus Center. They also have a very good relationship with the Dollar Tree and Big Lots in Chico, he said.
At Citrus Avenue Elementary, Chico State students and some university staff and faculty were on the ground painting large pictures on the blacktop.
The school uses a holistic playground, Clifford said. Large images of things such as maps, flags, vocabulary words, seasons and other educational pictures are painted on the playground and used to integrate learning with playing.
“It’s a fun event and I love painting,” said child development major Kimberly Gilles, while painting Asia and Australia on the world map. Gilles heard about Furlough Frenzy through Bidwell Presbyterian Church.
Some members from a new fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, were also painting and working on the trees of the seasons.
The fraternity is aiming to change the common perception of fraternities and wanted to come out and help with Furlough Frenzy, said fraternity member David Burger .
“We are trying to get our name out there in a positive manner,” he said.
Nicole Landini can be reached at
nlandini@theorion.com
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