If you passed by the second floor Andrew White College Center on Wednesday, Nov. 18, you would have felt the excitement and the adrenaline pumping through the entire floor. There was no way of passing by and not getting drawn into the room. Fresh paddles on the table, food steaming on the side, tables filled with anxious chatter and never ending chips and salsa celebrated Project Mexico's Annual Auction.
Project Mexico is a service-learning immersion program sponsored by the Center for Community Service and Justice. The 10-day immersion program in December consists of service and educational exchange with communities of the Tijuana, Tecate and Mexicali, Mexico. A program that begins in early September, receiving many applications, the program accepts a handful of students who are required to commit for the entire year.
"It's a commitment, both emotional and psychological," said Program Coordinator Andy Goicochea. They have weekly meetings consisting of team building activities, as well as reflections on service and expectations of the trip.
Project Mexico began through a Jesuit philosophy professor who wanted to show his students mercy, compassion and love beyond the classroom setting. After being established in 1987, Project Mexico still builds off of this foundation. The mission statement, which includes "to educate ourselves and explore the social justice issues faced by people of developing countries" and "to serve alongside people in need of schools, shelters and community development projects," encourages students "to introduce participants to the history, cultural life and political, social and economic realities of Mexico." Because of goals like these, Michelle Lally, '12, a participant in Project Mexico, admits the program intrigued her. "Bringing service and education together is a good concept. You need to learn, adapt, in order to service those in needs," said Lally.
The auction itself plays an enormous role in the funding of Project Mexico. Each student is required to pay $450, however, it costs a lot more than that to fund the trip. The purpose of fund raising the rest of the money is to have total participation from each student, something to go beyond just writing a check for the trip. One form of fund raising is designing t-shirts promoting Project Mexico; t-shirts were sold outside of Boulder. The interesting part about these t-shirts is that they are fair trade, which means that they are slightly more expensive to ensure workers are paid reasonable wages.
The group is broken into soliciting teams once they are accepted. They are encouraged to go to local businesses, popular stores and even organizations on campus to ask for donations of money or a service. There was a lot of organizing and planning before the auction. Decisions on the order of the auction, as well as putting together the auction book, consumed many hours from all participants. There were two parts to the auction, the live auction and the silent auction.
Items from the live auction varied from dinner for six from various faculty members, to a leopard-print Snuggie, to Southwest Airline Tickets. Prices ranged from $35 dollars as a final bid to over $500 dollars for Ravens/Steelers tickets. For the silent auction, items were broken into different categories such as entertainment, arts and education, household, athletics, services, Loyola, and so on. Items ranged from autographed books, to paintings, to gift cards and classic Loyola College flags, banners, and signs. Most students who are going on the service trip actually donated themselves as a service. Lally, for instance, donated a month's worth of laundry duty; her old roommate won the bid. The goal for the night was $20,000; so far, the team has raised $21,000, with people still coming into CCSJ to pay for their items.
With a room filled with students, faculty, friends and family, the sense of community was strong and alive. The auction coming to an end just intensified the excitement the participants are feeling, awaiting their trip to Mexico.
Goicochea looks forward to the learning experience Mexico will bring to the students: "It is showing them personal story, personal contact, contact connected to a concept."
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