{"id":1816,"date":"2009-05-05T05:04:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T10:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2009-05-04T10:34:57","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T15:34:57","slug":"class-project-helps-grant-wish-of-local-teen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/05_05_2009\/class-project-helps-grant-wish-of-local-teen","title":{"rendered":"Class project helps grant wish of local teen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making accounting enjoyable to students is a hard task for many faculty members, but not Kathleen Fitzpatrick, associate professor of business technology.<\/p>\n

\"Billy,<\/a>

Billy, a soccer player and fan, checked out a ball signed by members of the UT women's soccer team.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fitzpatrick assigned her accounting class a project that required them to support a local charity by planning fundraising events. The class chose to sponsor a child with a life-threatening illness for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northwest Ohio.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the students say accounting is fun after taking this class. I think it\u2019s great that my students feel this way after completing the project,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were given the assignment I thought, \u2018How does this relate to accounting?\u2019\u201d 20-year-old Ellie Sharkey recalled. \u201cEvery day it becomes more and more understandable, and now I realize that this project has a lot to do with accounting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project gave student\u2019s real-world experience in managing people, delegating responsibility, budgeting, decision-making and marketing, Fitzpatrick said. However, she felt the most important part of the assignment was bringing the class together and teaching them how to give back.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick said the assignment inspired her students. \u201cThey put a lot of time and effort into this \u2014 more than I would have ever asked of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great contributing to something other than a normal class project. This allowed us to help out someone who has been through a lot,\u201d said 22-year-old Lindsay Smith.<\/p>\n

The class sponsored a 16-year-old boy named Billy, who has Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma. He didn\u2019t speak much, but he wore a smile the entire time he recently visited Fitzpatrick\u2019s class on Scott Park Campus.<\/p>\n

His wish is to see the Manchester United soccer team play in Manchester, England.<\/p>\n

\"Billy,<\/a>

Billy, holding the soccer ball, posed for a photo with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, far right, and her accounting class.<\/p><\/div>\n

Billy came to the class with two Make-A-Wish representatives and accepted gifts and informed the students about his trip to England.<\/p>\n

He will be accompanied by his best friend, mother and stepfather on the trip. Not only will they watch Manchester United play, but they also will do some shopping, take a VIP boat cruise on the London Eye River Cruise, and visit local museums.<\/p>\n

Billy is a senior at Sylvania Southview High School and plans on attending Owens Community College in the fall to play soccer and major in culinary arts.<\/p>\n

The class playfully teased him for choosing Owens instead of UT.<\/p>\n

Billy just laughed and one of the representatives said, \u201cSorry, UT doesn\u2019t offer men\u2019s soccer or culinary arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to sponsor Billy, the class broke into four teams. Each team conducted a different fundraising project.<\/p>\n

One team organized two bake sales, one on Main Campus and one on Health Science Campus.\u00a0 Just at the Health Science Campus sale alone, the team raised more than $300.<\/p>\n

One of the representatives thanked the team and told them that $300 will cover two days of food for Billy and his three guests.<\/p>\n

Another team organized a charity concert that took place in Rocky\u2019s Attic on Main Campus last month.<\/p>\n

A different group raised money to purchase and sell pizzas to students in the dorms and at the charity concert.<\/p>\n

The last group partnered with a local bar, the Annex, and arranged for a percentage of cover charges from April 22 to go toward Billy\u2019s wish.<\/p>\n

A representative said that wishes are not usually granted as quickly as Billy\u2019s but with the class\u2019s contribution, he is going to London sooner than anticipated.<\/p>\n

According to its Web site, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is a national organization that grants wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. The wish experience provides hope, encouragement and a carefree experience to children and families whose lives revolve around doctor visits and harsh medical treatments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accounting students raised funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Northwest Ohio to help a local teen travel to England to watch his favorite soccer team play in Manchester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}