Collaboration for a cause
Meera Vijayan is a third-year PharmD candidate at The University of Oklahoma Health Science Center College of Pharmacy. She is one of the cochairs of the college’s philanthropy committee, Rx-A-Wish, which raises money for Make-A-Wish Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Health Science Center College of Pharmacy has always had a strong emphasis on giving back to the community. However, during the pandemic, many of our annual events had to be put on hold due to the inability to have in-person events. Starting this year, my fellow co-chairs and I were dedicated to bringing back campus-wide philanthropic events that would help raise money for Make-A-Wish Oklahoma so that we could ultimately grant a wish to a child living with a critical illness.
Do good together
As a philanthropic committee, we do not receive any outside funding from our college as other student organizations typically receive. Therefore, we needed to find a way to create some funds to help organize our events of the year. With our college containing more than 10 student organizations, we decided to reach out to the presidents of each of the other organizations to see if they were willing to donate a portion of their school funding to our committee in exchange for their organization to be promoted at every event. With involvement from each organization, we created a collaborative effort within the college that also made planning the events a lot more fun with all the added interest.
Connect the community
Our real secret for success is the support that we have from our community. With our campus located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City, we have access to a robust community of local businesses. To promote more engagement in our cause, we continuously reach out to various local businesses to help us raise money. This has allowed us to host a free Pilates class from a local instructor and a give-back event with a local jewelry store. A representative from a local Pilates studio hosted a class on campus that allowed health science campus students to donate money to Make-A-Wish Oklahoma as their entry fee. Another local partner was a jewelry store that donated a percentage of their sales for the day to our cause. Thanks to these local partners, were able to hold interactive and fun events to raise money.
We also received numerous item donations from many businesses that allowed us to host an annual silent auction, which generates the most revenue for us to donate back to Make-A-Wish Oklahoma.
Realistic goals
Of course, we hope to be able to raise as much money as possible in order to grant as many wishes as we can; however, a goal must be set. It is essential that this goal be realistic so that our efforts have a purpose. As we discussed within our committee, we wanted to be able to see a wish be granted with the amount that we raised. Therefore, we chose a goal of $5,000 to accomplish that.
With such a great cause in mind, we truly believe that we are coming together as a community larger than just our college to help grant a wish to a deserving child.