By Madalyn Watson | Staff Writer
To cure students’ stress, CURE BU invited dogs and students alike to enjoy Puppy Playtime on Fountain Mall on Thursday between 4 and 6 p.m.
CURE BU is the Baylor chapter of a non-profit organization that operates hospitals and programs in 26 countries, according to the international organization’s website.
Claremore, Okla., junior Kaylee Clyma, a member of CURE BU, brought her mini-Australian shepherd Ellie to play with the other dogs during Puppy Playtime.
“Four of them are also officer’s dogs and then others are just friends of friends and people who [were] just walking around and saw us,” Clyma said.
Students paid $5 to go inside a fenced-in area to play with the Puppy Playtime dogs.
“The first 50 who [paid] to get into Puppy Playtime also get free Pokey-O’s,” Clyma said.
Clyma is a part of CURE BU’s events team that planned the event as well as their previous profit shares with Fuego and Chick-fil-A.
“We were just kind of throwing ideas out there what we wanted to do what we wanted the atmosphere to be like, and so far it’s been perfect and we love it,” Clyma said.
Arlington, Va., freshman Savannah Landefeld, the events chair for CURE BU, researched hospital updates about the children in CURE hospitals around the world and set up a letter writing station so students could write letters to them.
“We do letter writing a couple times during the semester and then send all the letters out at the end of the semester,” Landefeld said.
In addition to writing letters and petting dogs, students played games and bought T-shirts to help CURE BU reach their fundraising goal.
Puppy Playtime was their last fundraiser to help reach their goal this semester, said Denver junior Mykenna Nichols, the vice president of CURE BU.
“Our fundraising goal for the semester is to raise $400 and that will completely fund surgery for a child with clubfoot,” Nichols said.
However, CURE BU will be hosting several more events next semester and they will also be a part of Late Night.
Landefeld found out about CURE BU through Late Night earlier this year and became one of their members.
“Something that I love most about it was the it was a really tight-knit organization since it was smaller and just getting off its feet,” Landefeld said. “I felt like I actually had more of an impact on what we’re doing.”
Landefeld said that she wanted to join an organization that was service orientated and that all of the other students she met through CURE BU were servant-hearted.
“One of my favorite things about CURE is our mission statement is to heal the sick but also to proclaim the kingdom of God. So CURE is very focused on Christian relationships,” Landefeld said.
Nichols said that some of the communities that CURE hospitals are located in are not Christian and do not have health care that can help these children.
“It’s been really sweet to build something that’s about building community at Baylor while serving a greater purpose and sharing the name of Jesus and healing the sick,” Nichols said.
CURE hospitals treat children with cleft lip, cleft palate, hydrocephalus as well as spina bifida.
“All these things [make it so] they physically don’t look like other children. And so they’re outcast in their communities, and they’re told that they’re worthless,” Nichols said.
Nichols said that CURE BU is not a pre-med organization. Many of the members are majoring in a myriad of subjects from accounting to communications.
“We want to be unified as an organization who wants to see God’s goodness in the world.” Nichols said.
