Nov. 4, 2010

HARRISBURG – Students invite the public to come to HACC’s C. Ted Lick Wildwood Conference Center on the Harrisburg Campus and be a part of something worthwhile.

The Student Government Association (SGA), Islamic Ummah Club students and HACC’s office of Student Life and Center for Global Education have come together to offer a four-course dinner in a Help for the Homeless – Empty Bowls Dinner at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17. Proceeds benefit the National Coalition for the Homeless.

For a $10 donation ticket holders will be treated to a banquet dinner created by HACC’s culinary students and a specially designed keepsake bowl produced by Ceramics Club students. The evening includes testimonials from people who previously were homeless.

A service learning trip to Washington, D.C., with the Center for Global Education sparked HACC student Darin Robillard into action for the Empty Bowls Dinner.

During the service learning trip in May, Robillard and the group met with the Faces of Homelessness bureau and learned two important messages: “Becoming homeless isn’t hitting rock bottom; rock bottom is when you lose all hope and give up,” Robillard said. And, “the stereotypes of the problem of homelessness could not be more wrong.”

As for the fund raiser, he added, “Mostly, I just want to spread the word of what I learned that night, as well as inform the general public of what they can do to help, rather than just give $2 or a cheeseburger.”

Robillard, an international studies major, hopes to take the success of this program when he transfers to Shippensburg University as a communications major next year.

The dinner will take place in the conference center on the Harrisburg Campus, One HACC Drive, the college’s entrance four off Industrial Road. Tickets are available by contacting HACC’s SGA office, 717-780-2597 or come to the Cooper Student Center 101A, 106, 107C or 107E on the Harrisburg Campus.