{"id":25438,"date":"2013-11-22T16:27:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T21:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=25438"},"modified":"2013-11-25T09:37:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T14:37:32","slug":"students-co-ordinate-business-crawl-to-help-downtown-and-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2013\/11\/students-co-ordinate-business-crawl-to-help-downtown-and-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"Students co-ordinate business crawl to help downtown and charity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rucha<\/a>

Rucha Patel (left) and Cameron Alderdice are the Brock Philanthropists. The two students host events to help local charities. Their latest, a local business crawl, is on now until Dec. 1. <\/p><\/div>\n

Two Brock philanthropists have come up with a plan to help local businesses and support charity.<\/p>\n

All they need is the help of their fellow students to shop and eat downtown, and throw a little extra on their tab for Big Brothers Big Sisters of St. Catharines-Thorold and District.<\/a><\/p>\n

Called the Local Business Crawl, the event is for students, staff and faculty, who can pick up a passport – a booklet of coupons – on campus for deals at participating downtown stores where they will be asked to make a $1-donation to Big Brothers with their purchase.<\/p>\n

Shoppers will also be entered into a raffle for $600-worth of prizes, including gift cards, dinners and private events, from the different shops and restaurants involved.<\/p>\n

The idea for the crawl comes from the Brock Philanthropists, two students – Rucha Patel and Cameron Alderdice – who created a club earlier this year that’s dedicated to hosting events to raise money for local charities.<\/p>\n

The Local Business Crawl is the club’s second event. The first, a carnival, held on campus in September, raised money for Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold.<\/p>\n

Alderdice, a business communications student, said the Local Business Crawl was motivated by his own interest in giving downtown St. Catharines a boost.<\/p>\n

“I think local businesses are important to support,” Alderdice said. “You can see from our downtown that some businesses need the help and that’s why they were receptive to (participating).”<\/p>\n

Some of the deals include 20 per cent off board games at the Toy Trove, 10 per cent off at Serendipity Sweets, half-price pizza at Dom’s, and lunch specials at Strega Caf\u00e9 and Coffee Culture. Sixteen businesses in all are participating in the crawl.<\/p>\n

The promotions are valid until Dec. 1. If the crawl is a success, Alderdice and Patel hope to make it an annual event.<\/p>\n

Choosing to help Big Brothers was easy for the duo, who were keen to support programs that benefit children or promote literacy.<\/p>\n

“There’s a focus on children, which is important, especially in St. Catharines,” said Patel, a commuications, pop culture and film student. “I find the community is not as tightknit as I wish it was. We have events like the Grape and Wine Festival… but there’s not a lot of activities or programs just for children.”<\/p>\n

Charities are also selected based on how they spend the money club raises from its events.<\/p>\n

“We do want to make sure that these charities are using the money wisely and using it to treat a problem and not a symptom of a problem,” Alderdice said.<\/p>\n

Business crawl passports can be picked up at the Schmon Tower information desk, the Student Leadership and Innovation Commons (MCA 204), or the reception desk at BUSU.<\/p>\n

Draws for the raffle prizes will happen in early December.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Brock Philanthropists, including volunteer opportunities, email contact@thebrockphilanthropists.ca.<\/a> You can also follow the club on Twitter<\/a> or Facebook. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Brock philanthropists have come up with a plan to help local businesses and support charity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":25440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1],"tags":[1470,1469,341],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25442,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25438\/revisions\/25442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}