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A Minnesota winter makes warm clothes essential, but not everyone is fortunate enough to have a hat or gloves, or even a winter jacket. Just imagine the difference one coat could make to a person in need on a cold winter night. On one such night, U of M students John Barber and Surbhi Madia came up with an idea to help people without winter clothing by creating Fill the Bus! at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Fill the Bus! is an annual campus-wide clothing drive during which students, faculty, and staff donate winter clothing to help those in need. Students organize a clothing drive to collect enough clothing to fill full-sized public transit buses with hats, gloves, coats and more.
This year's clothing drive culminated on December 1 with the Fill the Bus! event, where volunteers and contributors gathered enough clothing to fill the equivalent of three full-sized public transit buses.
"Three years ago, Surbhi Madia 's younger brother Virat randomly threw out the idea of filling a bus," says Bailey Smuhl. "No one thought that they would be able to fill a whole bus with clothing, but the first year we ended up with more clothes than we ever imagined and decided that it was fun idea to continue." Smuhl is a senior in the Individualized Studies program. Her concentrations are in Communication, Cultural Diversity, and Management. Smuhl's U of M classes prepared her well for her role as the advertising and media contact for Fill the Bus!
Smuhl and her co-volunteers bring the buses and vans full of the winter clothes to the Pillsbury Community Center in north Minneapolis. Pillsbury United Communities, a Twin Cities nonprofit organization, distributes the donations throughout the Twin Cities to children and families in need.
Fill the Bus! is built on one of the University's oldest traditions of giving back to the community. For a child without a winter coat, Fill the Bus! can change a cold Minnesota night into a winter wonderland.
The Fill the Bus! event featured:
- Remarks by Susan Hagstrum, President Bruininks' wife; Chanda Smith from Pillsbury United Communities; and Surbhi Madia, cocreator of Fill the Bus!
- Volunteer opportunities for U of M students
- Music from local radio station, KDWB
- Free Chipotle for the first 400 people to donate 15 or more items
- Prizes including gift certificates for Applebee's, Milio's, Quizno's, Noodles, and University of Minnesota Bookstores
- Hot chocolate or coffee for every donor
Fill the Bus! is one of many events throughout the University's Month of Kindness, which began with a 5K "Family Fun Run" to benefit the Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) Program.
-Nathan Kass
For more information about Fill the Bus!, please visit http://www.fillthebus.org/.
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