THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008
NEWS
》 CAMPUS
3A
Project to benefit multiple sclerosis
BY RUSTIN DODD
dodd@kansan.com
dodd@kansan.com
Everyday Kelly Mesi lives with uncertainty.
Mesi, a La Grange, III., senior is one of 400,000 people who live with multiple sclerosis in the United States.
"One day you could wake up and have to take a midterm, and you're unable to, because you can't see," Mesi said.
Mindy Ricketts/KANSAN
Mesi has dealt with the uncertainty since May of last year. People with MS can't predict when the symptoms will surface.
Students on the Event Planning committee in communications 342 plan for the MS Society fundraiser their class is organizing for this Saturday. Events include open bowling at Royal Crest Lanes, 933 Iowa St., from 1 to 3 p.m. and a beer pong tournament at Jet Lag Lounge, 610 Florida St., from 5 to 8 p.m. The students are, clockwise from right, Amanda McConnaught, Overland Park senior, Chelsea Veire, Eden Prairie, Min. senior, Amy Abrams, Leawood senior, David Stutz, Leawood senior, Rachelle Saathoff, Lawrence senior, Liz Decker, St. Louis junior and Zach Wisdom. Manhattan junior.
Taryn Myers, Shawnee Mission senior, was studying abroad in Europe with Mesi when Mesi had her first episode, the term people with MS use to describe the symptoms.
"It's the inconvenience of it," Mesi said.
So when Myers "Problem Solving in Teams and Groups" class had to plan a fundraiser, Myers stood up in front of her class and sold her classmates on the idea of a project benefitting multile sclerosis.
One of those classmates is Maggie McGuire, a Mission Hills senior and a friend of Mesi and Myers.
"We wanted to do a project that actually meant something," McGuire said. "If you know someone who has
been through it, you're more likely to help out"
This is the first year that Communications classes are organizing charity events as part of the course curriculum. In the past, students in the class used the semester to create and market a board game. LaChrystal Ricke, a graduate teaching assistant, was the visionary behind the course format change.
"I was a little frustrated with whether the students were getting out what they should have gotten out of the class," Ricke said.
"I really wanted to give the students something tangible," Rickie said. "This will be an experience students can take with them. They will be able to use what they've learned from this experience and apply it in their future careers."
At the beginning of the semester, Ricke stood in front of the class and said, "Here is my vision for what I want this semester."
Students spent the semester in groups, pooling their resources and organizing the event.
The students decided on a charity bowling event and a beer pong tournament to raise money for the cause. The class' semester of planning will become a reality on Saturday. The bowling event, "Strike out MS," is at Royal Crest Lanes from 1-3 p.m., and the beer pong
tournament is at Jet Lag Lounge from 5 - 8.p.m.
The project has caused a lot of excitement among the class members.
"They've really taken to it," Ricke said.
Three of the "Problem Solving in Teams and Groups" class sections are still using the old curriculum, but Ricke said she was hopeful the service learning project will stay part of the class.
"We've done a pilot system and it has been successful" Ricke said.
Kelly Mesi, La Grange, Ill., senior, center, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis last year. Her friends, Maggie McGuire, Mission Hills senior, right, and Taryn Myers, Shawnee Mission senior, are in a communications class that is planning a benefit for MS.
Todd Brown, Shawnee junior, and another member of the class said the event should raise $4,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. "If you ask me, that's a lot of cash," Brown said.
For now Mesi is able to live a relatively normal life, but she's still motivated to help the approximately 2 million people around the world who are affected by multiple sclerosis.
Events to benefit MS
STRIKE OUT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
"The treatments are not the greatest." Mesi said, "so the more time and energy that is focused on
"She'll do anything for you."
Myers said. "She's so determined."
What: A COMS 342 class is holding a charity bowling event to benefit multiple sclerosis. Cost is $50 per team.
Where: Royal Crest Lanes, 9th and Iowa streets,
When: 1-3 p.m., Saturday,
May 3
CONSOLIDATE FOR THE CURE
What: Beer pong tournament to benefit multiple sclerosis. Cost is $5 per person.
Where: Jetlag Lounge, 6th and Florida streets.
When: 5 - 8 p.m., Saturday, May 3
it, the more likely we can find a cure for those 2 million people."
Edited by Daniel Reyes
>>NATION
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Fatima Tapia, 6, left, and Joed Sosa, 5, both of Manassas, Va., hold signs in Spanish that say, "Don't separate our families," and "We are not criminals," during an immigrant rights rally in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
Activists demand U.S. citizenship
BY SOPHIA TAREEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
From Washington to Miami to Los Angeles, immigrant rights activists demanded citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. and an end to raids and deportations.
CHICAGO - Thousands of chanting,flag-waving immigrants and activists rallied in cities across the country Thursday, attempting to reinvigorate calls for immigration reform in a presidential election year in which the economy has taken center stage.
"We come here to fight for legalization. We're people. We have rights," said Eric Molina, an undocumented factory worker who immigrated to Zion, Ill., from Mexico.
Molina, his sister and his 13-year-old daughter Erika, a U.S. citizen, were among about 15,000 people who rallied in Chicago in one of the largest demonstrations of the day.
Turnout has fallen sharply since the first nationwide rallies
in 2006, when more than 1 million people — at least 400,000 in Chicago alone — clogged streets and brought downtown traffic to a standstill. Activists say this year's efforts are focused less on protests and more on voter registration and setting an agenda for the next president.
Some said participation likely was lower because many immigrants increasingly fear deportation.
Margot Veranes, a volunteer organizer in Tucson, Ariz., — where 12,000 took to the streets last year but early estimates Thursday put the crowd at about 500 — blamed the turnout on aggressive enforcement by Border Patrol and police.
"People have been stopped and deported in the last week. This is a community living in fear," said Veranes, a researcher for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. "You never know when you're going to be stopped by Border Patrol and now the police."
But she said that's also why people were marching.