In November, Taylor introduced a grant to fund student-led community service projects in the surrounding area.
Wade Frances, the student body president, said this year’s cabinet is using rolled-over funds from last year. There is also a built-in service fund for next year, he said.
“This is actually a cool God moment,” Frances said. “We thought of this community service, and then next year, TSO had budgeted things exactly for this. We had no idea.”
Although it has only been a few weeks since announcing the grant, five students have already applied for the grant. One of the grant recipients is a group from the second floor of Samuel Morris Hall (Sammy2). They have actively served a family in Marion all semester.
Sammy2 has worked with a mom to help her family have a safer living space. The house had broken windows, a leaking roof, rotting siding and debris covering the yard. Sammy2 started a GoFundMe earlier this year and raised over $4,000, according to sophomore Austin Snively, a Discipleship Assistant (DA) on the floor.
Originally, they went through a site called NeighborLink, used to find people in Grant County in need of assistance - which is how they found this mom and her family. They have since been working with the mom in person. Their goal has been to develop relationships with her and her family as they help repair her home.
With the grant, Sammy2 has $1,000 to continue repairing the family’s home.
“We applied for the grant, and we want to use that for the windows and also the siding for her house,” Snively said. “The grant gave $1,000, but it’s based through reimbursements, so we’ll show them our receipts, and they’ll reimburse us.”
This reimbursement policy was implemented by the cabinet in order to help keep accountability, said freshman Tristan Hildebrand, who serves as the student body’s Secretary on the president’s cabinet.
Hildebrand grew up doing volunteer work overseas, helping with disaster relief and various types of service in other countries. He said bringing service opportunities to people who need it around Taylor has been valuable.
He found that he could apply some of his service experience while working with other students on the content of the grant.
“I was mostly in charge of making the rubric,” Hildebrand said. “I looked through the details of how it was going to look from a paperwork standpoint. But really, we worked on the whole process all together.”
For most of the people working on the grant, it was their first experience with grant writing.
Frances said it felt like a big responsibility to have the right to decide who gets to receive the money and which projects the grant goes to.
“The big thing we want to see with the grant is lasting impact,” Frances said. “So we really hope that each project can impact more than just fixing up a house, but actually walking with people.”
Snively said it is more than just something their floor is doing.
He wants it to be bigger than just a floor accomplishment; he, like Frances, hopes there will really be a lasting impact on the community and at Taylor.
“I think another thing that’s important is being consistent,” Snively said. “There’s nothing wrong with doing a service project one day for somebody and then moving on. But I think it really says something and models how Christ has always stuck with us.”
