Student organization hopes to use college students’ competitive nature to support refugee and immigrant families in central Ohio

Gia An Thach
Wed, 01 Mar 2023 01:10:30 +0000
Campus, Instagram Page, News, blankets, bracket, Buckeyes, Carly Wagner, change in power, Community Connectors, Community Connectors at Ohio State, community refugee and immigration services, dental hygiene, jeopardy board, Jeremy Hollon, lack of initiatives, March Kindness Challenge, Nadia Rajab, NCAA March Madness, ohio state, shoes, stickers, t shirt

Members of CCOSU made blankets for CRIS families. Courtesy of Community Connectors at Ohio State

With NCAA March Madness on the horizon, a student organization aims to bring competitive thrill to campus in another way — March Kindness.?

Community Connectors at Ohio State, a student organization which operates on behalf of Community Refugee and Immigration Services to help immigrants transition to Columbus, will host March Kindness for the first time.?

Rather than a 64-team bracket in March Madness basketball, March Kindness provides participants with a jeopardy board of activities, ranging from making blankets and welcome cards for families of immigrants and refugees to hosting fundraising events to fund immigrant families’ living expenses.?

Jeremy Hollon, Community Connectors coordinator at CRIS who created the idea of March Kindness, said he thought the challenge could be an exciting way to engage Ohio State students through competition. Hollon said this challenge will allow students to support others in easy ways.?

“I didn’t think anyone would like it, but all of the Ohio State people I brought it up to, they’re like, ‘You don’t know this campus,’ because that’s exactly what they want,” Hollon said. “If you can’t give them a T-shirt or sticker, and you can have them compete, then they will come out.”

Carly Wagner, a CRIS mentor and fourth-year in marketing, said each activity on the board emphasizes “basics to get by” for immigrants and refugees, including dental hygiene products and school supplies.

“For hygiene kits when they first arrive, it’s a nice thing to be able to give them just so they have soap, toothbrush or toothpaste,” Wagner said.

Wagner said student organizations can win by participating in the activities on the board. Each activity is worth a specific number of points, and the organizations with the most points by the end of March win. The prizes have not yet been specified.?

While competition may be the factor that excites participants, Hollon said he hopes the participants will want to learn more about CRIS’ mission and continue their support beyond the challenge. He said both organizations have had difficulty finding mentors to participate in CRIS’ Community Connectors program at Ohio State.

Nadia Rajab, CCOSU creator and a third-year in health sciences, said many children in CRIS’ Community Connectors program are not paired with mentors because of the latter’s lack of interest. She said CRIS families still receive support from resources they receive from initiatives, such as March Kindness.?

“We had a very large influx of people from Afghanistan due to the change in power, and so these families had lost everything,” Rajab said. “And so the blankets that we made went to them, and they don’t necessarily have mentors yet, but they are still supported by our community.”?

Since this is the first year CCOSU and CRIS are hosting the challenge, Hollon said when the challenge is complete at the end of March, both organizations hope to host a sit-down meal for contributors to build connections with CRIS and recognize their accomplishments by completing the bracket.

“I’m just hopeful that energy comes through and is met with positivity. Like, we did this, and it did something,” Hollon said. “That’s my hope, is that everyone who participates feels connected to us, or at least feels like what they’ve done truly matters to us.”

For more information about March Kindness, visit @criscommunityconnectors or @cc.osu on Instagram.