Fourth-year student Katie Clow was recently chosen as a campaign advisor for the National Shinerama Leadership team.
Shinerama is the student campaign that fundraises for Cystic Fibrosis Canada. Clow learned she got the position last week.
“I was actually really surprised that I got it because they usually only accept people with two years experience and since this past year is my first year I didn’t really think I’d get it,” she said. “I’m really happy my regional advisor encouraged me to apply.”
Clow was the coordinator of St. Thomas’ first Shinerama event in September during Welcome Week. Under her leadership, the university raised $1,000 more than their goal, bringing the total to over $6,000.
Now, as the campaign advisor, Clow will be advising students to do the same campaign at their own schools.
The volunteer position starts immediately and lasts for one year. The national conference will be in May. There, Clow will help to train students about the campaign.
“At the conferences, we work hard and we play hard. So when we are playing hard, we are doing a lot of ‘fun’ fundraisers. So if we raise so much money in 20 minutes then someone will take a body shot off of someone,” she said.
After the conference, Clow will be in charge of advising students who want to get their schools involved with the program.
“I’ll be given a group of seven or eight people who are planning campaigns across the country and then they contact me if they have any questions or I help them order supplies or plan activities.”
Clow said she is excited to continue to be a part of this cause.
“To be honest I didn’t really know much about it before it was brought to my attention for Welcome Week and then I just fell in love with the organization,” she said. “Since then, I’ve met a lot of people who are struggling with cystic fibrosis and it’s kind of more personal now. So it really made me want to help and have the opportunity to offer guidance to people like I was offered the same guidance too.”
Clow is graduating in May and hopes to be accepted into the Bachelor of Education program at St. Thomas for the fall.
