Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine’s chapter of the American Medical Women’s Association once again raised funds for Haven of Oakland County through the sale of personalized Valentine's Day cards.
Pontiac-based Haven offers a comprehensive program for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, providing shelter, counseling, advocacy and educational programming to nearly 30,000 people each year.
Emily Schneider, M2, president of the OUWB chapter of American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), explained that valentines are taken from Google form submissions with the recipient's name and address. People have two weeks to fill out the forms.
From there, AMWA compiles all the responses and has the cards printed with the messages on the back.
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| A sampling of the valentines prepared by the OUWB chapter of AMWA. The cards were designed by Nell Brigoli, M2. |
Previously, AMWA would go around campus and deliver bags of candy to students and staff. But starting in 2021, the fundraiser went virtual due to the pandemic.
Last year, AMWA raised $525 for HAVEN. This year, that number increased to $685.
“The (AMWA) executive board had to think on their toes about how to adapt this to a contactless fundraiser,” Schneider said.
“That's how they came up with the idea for the valentine's cards that could be submitted — the form is remote. And then it just takes a small number of people to put them together and mail them off to anywhere in the country.”
Schneider also said that the fundraiser has actually garnered more success since it switched to a remote format.
“We actually found that the valentine's cards had a wider reach because of social media,” she said. “And we were actually finding that this format has been more successful than the candy grams in years past. So even when the pandemic hopefully finally is under control, we're probably going to keep it with this format.”
AMWA uses their annual budget from the medical student government to pay for supplies and then 100% of their proceeds go directly to Haven. Schneider said that Haven has been a “long standing community partner” of AMWA.
“Part of our mission is to improve women’s health,” Schneider said. “And we see that the epidemic of violence against women is certainly a matter of public health. For us, it's a really important organization, especially during the pandemic. There are reports of increasing intimate partner violence because of the stay-at-home orders and all that sort of thing, which is really upsetting. The work that Haven is doing is more important than ever right now. We're really pleased that we're able to support them in this way.”
Jasmine Valentine, marketing and development manager for Haven, said that the money raised by AMWA for the organization will be used for a variety of services.
“Right around Christmas and New Year’s, when Omicron was really heavy…four or five of our families in our residential care all had COVID,” she said.
Valentine said donations like the kind from AMWA allowed Haven officials to put clients in hotels, cover food costs, and provide activity kits.
“Having these funds helps us fill gaps,” said Valentine.
To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.
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