With Thanksgiving right around the corner, Bradley will once again hold its annual Giving Tuesday event. The international event is a global celebration of thanks and is intended to raise awareness to various philanthropies and charities. Since its inception on campus in 2015, Bradley has raised over $2 million through Giving Tuesday events.
“It’s an opportunity to show students how blessed they are,” Emily Formea, a Student Alumni Association member, said. “For students who are here getting a quality education, to realize not all students are as financially stable as them and that their education means just as much as theirs.”
Most of the donations go towards scholarships for Bradley students.
“Bradley wants to be able to support all of their students, including me,” Formea, a junior political science and business-economics double major, said. “For them to offer a scholarship in the long run that can make a huge impact.”
Formea said Giving Tuesday is a very important event for students to get involved with.
“It’s being thankful for your own education and then being able to support someone else,” Formea said. “I want them to have the same opportunities that I do and feel the same security I feel.”
In the future, Formea said Bradley might expand Giving Tuesday by making it a competition between dorms and Greek life to see who is able to raise the most money, in hopes that more people will get involved. As of right now, there is a week of events in which students can get food, donate and become more educated on the event.
Tables for Giving Tuesday will be out from Nov. 13 to Nov. 16 in Michel Student Center.
“It’s vital to remember not everyone is given the same opportunities as you, and to recognize the struggle that the people closest to you undergo everyday,” Formea said. “It is incredibly meaningful that Bradley holds this event every year, it demonstrates just how much the university cares for its students and their education.”
