Rasmussen College hosted its eleventh annual Community Service Day on July 19, 2019. Approximately 700 employees from the College’s 23 campuses and three central offices participated in the national service day event, helping communities across the U.S. Through this annual effort, faculty and staff volunteer more than 2,100 hours in a 24-hour period.

Each campus community chose local volunteer organizations to donate their time to for this year’s event. The法戈和摩尔黑德campuses chose to partner together to support a local organization close to their hearts. They chose to partner withZach’s Foundation, whose mission is to help pediatric patients in the area forget they are battling cancer and “just be kids” by providing fun moments of joy, resources for their family and financial assistance.

该基金会是由拉斯穆森学院（Rasmussen College）从Moorhead校园的护理艾伦·鲁梅尔（Ellen Rummel）助理教授创立的，当时她失去了儿子扎克（Zach）。他在2015年被诊断出患有脑肿瘤时才八岁。艾伦说：“当您的孩子被诊断出威胁生命的疾病时，您的生活被完全颠倒了。”“但是我们在扎克（Zach）战斗中得到的社区的支持令人难以置信。我们得到了朋友，家人和许多人的大力支持，我们甚至从有趣的经验和礼物到财务支持资源中都不知道。”社区的支持对艾伦（Ellen）产生了如此的影响，以至于她启发了她创建一个专门回馈儿科患者及其家人的基础。她说：“对于每个家庭，我们希望提供欢乐，癌症资源和经济援助的时刻。”

While the focus is often on the child battling cancer, Ellen made sure Zach’s Foundation included support for siblings as well. “When a child is diagnosed with a life threatening illness, the attention tends to shift to that child understandably. When Zach was sick, I really appreciated when others made an effort to include my daughter, Alexa. Just to see the joy on both of their faces meant so much to me. So I wanted to make sure we included the siblings of pediatric patients in the work we do. They deserve moments of joy too,” she says.

当校园计划他们的社区服务日的努力时罗杰·马里斯癌症中心, everyone was on board. Senior Advisor Mandy Zastre spearheaded the efforts to bring these ideas to life. “Ellen’s mission for the Foundation inspired me to pay it forward,” she explains.

教职员工以及社区成员一起，将这些事件大为实现。这些校园与更大的社区合作，收集夏季狂欢节和好友袋的捐款，后来又装满了Chuck-e-e-Cheese礼券，羊毛毯，毛绒动物和大量玩具，可以在Roger Maris Cancer Center上的患者提供夏季狂欢节之后的星期五。目的是筹集5,000美元的商品和货币捐款，但Fargo/Moorhead社区以其价值超过12,000美元的捐赠为Zach的基金会击中了公园。“这些事件显示出令人难以置信的慷慨！”艾伦说。“这确实令人难以置信。”

走进夏季狂欢节，艾伦被投票率吹走了。“这比我们预期的要多。孩子们都在四处奔波，上面逛逛玩具和小吃。看到他们脸上的喜悦确实涵盖了我们基金会使命的全部本质。”她说。“看到每个人都在进行。每个人似乎都很高兴，这对我来说是非常激动的。”

第二天，大学的志愿者们把好友袋放在一起，去了罗杰·马里斯癌症中心与患者分享。“交付好友袋真是太棒了。当我考虑时，它仍然给我带来鸡皮ump。孩子们脸上的喜悦很美。我不知道该如何描述它。”曼迪分享道。那天遇到的最感人的时刻之一是和一个男孩一起庆祝他的生日。“由于罗杰·马里斯（Roger Maris）的工作人员有多伟大，他特别选择在生日那天接受治疗。那么，我们能够用乐高积木和查克·埃里斯（Chuck-e-Cheese）为他提高这个有趣的因素有多酷吗？！”曼迪说。

When reflecting on this year’s Community Service Day efforts, Ellen is overwhelmed with gratitude. “Not only is Rasmussen College an amazing place to work, they are also so willing to promote such great causes and get involved in the community.”

To learn more about Zach’s story and Ellen’s efforts with Zach’s Foundation, visit their网站。“The two biggest things I learned from this whole experience were ‘don’t sweat the small things’ and ‘reach out to others when they’re struggling,’” Ellen says. “Pay it forward. That’s what Zach’s Foundation always tries to do.”

学习更多关于拉斯穆森学院对所服务社区的奉献精神。