@lsureveille
The Daily Reveille Est. 1887
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Volume 125 · No. 3
lsunow.com
Donate by Design
LSU student donates funds from handmade jewelry business to Hurricane Harvey victims BY ABBIE SHULL @AbbieL J
After winds and rain ravaged her home state of Texas, a University student is using her homemade jewelry to help those in need. Mass communication junior Devon Sanders has been making and selling unique, handmade jewelry for over a year. Her business started on Facebook and has expanded to Instagram, Etsy and her online store Devon Sanders Designs. Sanders started the business after she discovered how overpriced jewelry was for college students. “My roommate’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to buy her a necklace, but it was too expensive,” Sanders said. “So, I decided just to make something and then I realized that I could make more than just the one necklace.” The business became much bigger than Sanders envisioned. She only planned to design jewelry for the summer of 2016 when she began but has continued to sell products into her junior year. Sanders grew up in Clear Creek, Texas, just outside of photos by DILYN STEWART / The Daily Reveille
Houston. After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, she and her sister, Delaney Sanders, a junior at Baylor University, decided to donate some of the profits of DSD to the American Red Cross. “I started looking for ideas of different things we could do, and I read an article about different organizations that tend to get forgotten during times like this,” Devon said. She had been to local organizations like the SPCA of Houston before, and felt a local group might personalize the fundraiser. “I thought people might donate more if they knew the organizations were local. I noticed that the day we raised money for our school district, a lot of the donations were from people who’d gone to school there or lived near there.” Devon previously raised money through her business for the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child in October 2016. During the Oct. 11 event, she donated 50 percent of her profits to Girls International, but this year, she donated 100 percent of the profits every day for
see JEWELRY, page 6
STUDENT LIFE
New club aims to serve homeless population
BY MACKENZIE TREADWELL @mackenizeelizaa One of the University’s newest student organizations is fighting to change the way homeless populations are viewed, one relationship at a time. Encounter, formed in March seeks to serve Baton Rouge’s homeless through community work and forming personal connections, said club president Tabitha Kearns. As several of the club’s founders grew up in small towns, they were surprised by the homeless population surrounding campus, Kearns said. They wanted to help, but couldn’t find on-campus organizations whose outreach transcended monetary efforts. Vice president Joshua Caskey, a biochemistry junior, distinctly remembers looking for ways to get involved on TigerLink last year and coming up empty-handed, he said. Kearns and the rest of Encounter agree that as a society people tend to stigmatize the homeless population, viewing them as lessthan, and are taught to fear them. However, Encounter wishes to
see ENCOUNTER, page 6
LIFESTYLE
Veterinary school students find camaraderie in corgi club BY KAYLEE POCHE @pochecanyousee Meeting people in a new town can be challenging. Luckily, University veterinary student Megan Simon found the perfect icebreaker: corgis. When Simon moved from Lafayette to Baton Rouge for veterinary school, she didn’t know anyone. She started taking her now 9-year-old corgi, Chuck, to BREC’s dog park on Burbank Drive on the weekends. The welcoming atmosphere of the other dog owners at the park sparked Simon to start a club for fellow corgi owners in the area, she said. The club began in February 2016 as a Facebook page with three followers – two of which were Simon’s parents. Soon, it
began to gain traction through word of mouth, thanks in large part to the natural curiosity that transpires when people notice multiple corgis in a single location, Simon said. LSU SVM research technician and fellow corgi owner Daniel Garza was one of many to stumble upon Simon and her club. He immediately expressed such a strong interest in it that before long he surpassed the role of participant and became an organizer. Despite scheduling conflicts ranging from football season to “Game of Thrones” viewing parties, the duo manages to plan events regularly. They have their usual weekend meetups at the dog park but have also hosted tailgates in front of the vet school, a puppy pub
crawl and – their biggest event – a Halloween meet-up. Their Facebook page, Burbank Corgi Club, continues to be their main method of communicating with members. After events, Simon and Garza – who both happen to be photographers – will post high-definition photos from the event, often showing puppies playing in mud, running, sporting lobster costumes and making funny faces. While Simon and Garza have several mutual interests, they also bring their own unique talents to the organization. While she tends to focus more on the logistics of planning club events, Garza enjoyed livening up the Facebook posts, Simon said. Over the various meet-ups,
see CORGI, page 6
CAROLINE MAGEE / The Daily Reveille
The Burbank Corgi Club meets up to play Aug. 31 at BREC’s dog park on Burbank Drive.