Christina Bauert
Features Reporter

Photo by Christina Bauert

 

While most CMU students are getting ready for spring by tanning and coming up with a workout plan to look fit, Adam Clark is getting ready to reach out to the homeless.

Clark, a business major with a concentration in land and energy management, is the president of the new Innovative Help for the Homeless club. Clark and three other officers are putting together a constitution to be submitted to Student Life through OrgSync for approval.

While the club is still forming, current members are already brainstorming ideas and hoping to gain more supporters. Once ideas have been narrowed down, they want to focus on developing them wholly.

“Once we are fully formed we want to work on presentations about homelessness to bring awareness,” Clark said.

Currently the club meets in Dominquez Hall, but in the future they plan to have a set spot for weekly meetings. Clark, whose brother struggled with homelessness, came up with the idea to set up the Innovative Help for the Homeless club last semester. In his Small Business Management course, Clark was working on a project called “Art Made by the Homeless.” The idea was to sell art and crafts made by the homeless online. Clark really liked the idea of reaching out to the needy and thought it fit to set up a club for that purpose here on campus.

“I feel like we’re all connected,” Clark said. “We can’t do this life on our own. There is so much negativity about homeless people. We really want to focus on positivity.”

Although club members are still working on ideas, their goals are very clear.

“Our mission is to help the homeless in any way that we can, but we really want to be innovative, meaning we are not going to do things that are already being done,” Clark said.

Andrea Meza, a nursing major and the director and treasurer of the club, agreed that making a difference is more than doing what is often considered enough.

“We are more than a ‘help the homeless’ group. We are a club that wants to raise awareness about the homeless community itself, and how we can help them in ways other than giving them a dollar at a stoplight,” Meza said. “We all come from different backgrounds and are majoring in different fields, thus expanding perspectives and ideas. The more people can join, the better.”

Besides setting up a Facebook page for the club, Clark is planning on collaborating with other Grand Junction organizations dedicated to helping the homeless, such as Catholic Outreach and Homeward Bound of the Grand Valley. He is also planning on working with other CMU clubs to promote the cause and with the school cafeteria to work on donating good, leftover food.

“I want to better the Grand Valley Community and give back some of what I have been given,” Carlye Johnston, a nursing major and the club’s vice president, said.

The Innovative Help for the Homeless club, whose unofficial slogan is “Homeless, not hopeless,” will be open to donations of any kind as soon as it becomes official. Clark encourages all students to learn more about the club and join if they can. For more information, those interested can email Clark at aaclark@mavs.coloradomesa.edu.

cbauert@mavs.coloradomesa.edu