MSU class raises funds for local Make-a-Wish

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Jumping into water filled with sharks is probably not a wish most people want to come true.

For Grand Ledge High School senior Gabrielle Sowders, 18, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year, swimming with sharks in Hawaii is a wish MSU students can make come true.

The 100-plus students of Marketing 313, Personal Selling, have agreed for the second straight year to donate the profits from their class project to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, said Susan Smith, community development director for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan.

The class, taught by assistant professor of communication Doug Hughes, will sell CUTCO Cutlery products as part of Vector Marketing’s “Cutco in the Classroom” program.

“The semester-long project will last between eight and 10 weeks … and adds an experiential element to course selling,” Hughes said. “What made it really attractive is that it benefits some child who is in a tough situation.”

Sowders said she has been in and out of doctor’s offices and endured several rounds of chemotherapy, as well as 13 rounds of radiation, since she was diagnosed.

“Nothing can really describe how it is,” Sowders said. “It’s like you die before you live again. It’s the worst feeling in the world.”

Sowders said she chose Hawaii because her mother used to live in Hawaii, and after looking at pictures, she decided that’s where she wanted to go.

Out of the net profit, $7,500 will go toward Sowders’ wish and the remaining funds will be applied to wishes for other individuals, Smith said.

“Last semester, their goal was to raise $7,500 and they raised more than $21,000,” Smith said. “Hopefully, they can raise $20,000 again this semester.”

Communication senior Casey Davis said raising and donating the money added an incentive to the class project.

“When I first heard we had to sell stuff, I wasn’t so keen on the idea,” Davis said. “But after hearing it goes to such a great cause, I was apt to do it.”

Last year, students donated the proceeds to fulfill the wish of a young man with severe cerebral palsy named Derek, Smith said. The money helped pay for a device that allowed Derek to communicate with his family.

Sowders said she got the impression from Hughes that raising money to help make her wish come true was something very important.

“I think it’s really sweet,” she said. “I don’t know a lot of (universities) that do things like this that are local and the money goes to local kids.”

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