By Raphaella Matta

Contributing Writer

FGCU Dining partnered with Ellen Degeneres and Cheerios to help veterans last week. According to Ashley Farquhar, FGCU Dining Director of Marketing and Sustainability, FGCU’s company for Campus Dining, Chartwells, took part in Ellen Degeneres and Cheerios’ One Million Acts of Good campaign.

According to Farquhar, universities nationwide get 200 boxes with supplies such as snack bars and waters. Charles Bengtson, Marketing Coordinator for FGCU Dining, said the initiative would create boxes to be donated to homeless veterans in Cape Coral through the Red Cross.

“When veterans come home, they don’t necessarily have the support that they get from when they were in the military. So when they get home they might be removed from their family. It depends how long they’ve been away,” said Bengtson, “ a lot of them become homeless, a lot of them have mental illness when they come back, so this is the simplest way to support them.

FGCU students lined up Wednesday and Thursday to pack boxes with the donated supplies. Students were writing letters thanking troops for their service. Taryn Godwin, a freshman at FGCU, took part in the event.

“I have family that has been in the service. I like the way they [the project] approached it. It’s very sweet. It’s a great way to get the campus involved,” said Godwin.

Farquhar said that it was a previous campaign that pushed FGCU to take part in One Million Acts of Good.

“We did a flex campaign in which student [who] may have had a lot of flex dollars or just wanted to support our troops could. We had things set up at the register, like basket of items, that they could use their flex for. Cashiers would collect it and we were giving it to the Red Cross. That wasn’t as successful as I’d like it to be. Our students did a great job getting a few items, but I wanted to give them more. So when this opportunity came about, I thought it would be awesome to supplement what we had already given them,” said Farquhar.

According to EllenTube, the One Million Acts of Good campaign began two years ago. The initiative was created to push, “Be Kind to One Another” a slogan often used in Degeneres’ shows.

According to Farhquar, this is FGCU’s first time being part of the project or campaign. The boxing project involved 100 universities and ran for it’s second time this year. Each university has the freedom to help an organization or cause of their choice.

“I foresee every year Chartwell, Cheerios and Ellen doing something like this,” said Farhquar, “hopefully next year we do it again.”