By Marisa Young | Reporter
Alpha Epsilon Delta will host a thrift store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday at Fountain Mall to fundraise for their upcoming mission trip. Students can walk away with not just a new wardrobe, but also the knowledge that they have helped enable ministry and healthcare overseas.
Fort Worth junior and vice president of finance for Alpha Epsilon Delta Ian Stahl said that 100% of the proceeds from this event will go toward funding the trip.
“Last year our mission trip was to the Dominican Republic, and through our thrift store event and other similar events, we were able to give a stipend of $500 to every attendee,” Stahl said.
While many college students have the heart to minister overseas, not many have the financial resources to do so. Stahl said events like these make all the difference in creating opportunities for service.
“Something that’s currently important to us is … to really be able to step up and make that more affordable for students to go abroad and to support that mission,” Stahl said.
This event is a true collaboration on behalf of the whole organization, Stahl said, as all the clothing for the thrift has been donated by members.
“We plan this event starting two or three months before, and that’s when we really start getting a lot of donations,” Stahl said. “We incentivize [members] to help donate to this because all of our donations, all the proceeds for this event, go directly to support our students that are going on the mission trip.”
Grand Forks, N.D. senior Liv Olson said she appreciates how AED makes service opportunities as accessible as possible for members.
“I think AED does a really good job of teaching its members more about real world application of pre-med,” Olson said. “I think the opportunities that we’re given and the connections that AED provides are something that makes it unique from other pre-health orgs.”
According to Olson, the service completed on the mission trip will range from ministry efforts to healthcare provisions. She said she is excited for how the trip will not only impact the community in South Africa, but those who participate in serving.
“I’m hoping for the people that go on the mission trip, that they can experience a different type of service and provide care to people who might not have access to it- and then bring back those experiences,” Olson said.
Stahl similarly hopes this event, and the trip itself, will enable students to a unique type of learning experience they can’t receive in school.
“Global health transcends what we’re looking at as pre-health students,” Stahl said. “Medicine has connections to other countries; it has connections to other communities that we can both learn from and help share knowledge in those communities.”
