Wayland Anchorage student group on a roll to benefit shelter

ANCHORAGE—Wayland Baptist University’s Anchorage campus and its student chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management recently collected 4,650 rolls of toilet paper for a homeless shelter.

Students called their campaign “The Great Alaska IditaRoll Drive”—inspired by the annual Iditarod dog sledding event. They delivered their collection to the center the day before the Iditarod ended.

Bonnie Dorman, president of the student organization, noted the group previously helped the shelter and the 500 clients its serves by packing boxes filled with toiletries, hats, gloves and other items.

When the group delivered those boxes last December, center director Jim Crockett mentioned how fast the shelter goes through toilet paper—about 72 rolls each day. The students decided to tackle a project to meet that need, originally setting a goal of 1,150 rolls to match the mileage of the Iditarod race.

“We started on Jan. 24 and within a few weeks had already passed that goal, so we kept it going once the spring term started,” Dorman said. “People had so much fun with this. It was really the community coming together and everyone working on it. Students went out and collected from people they knew, and the faculty really got involved too.”

The group used the event to educate people about the shelter and the plight of the homeless in Anchorage, Dorman said, and people really seemed to be touched.

“What came out of this is how humble it made people and how we take such simple things for granted,” she said. The Society of Human Resource Management at Wayland’s Anchorage campus—which gives three scholarships to the general student body each year and is active in service projects—started in 2007 and has about 12 members.

Eddie Campoamor, assistant executive director for the campus, said he believed the drive made an impact on many.

“I truly did not expect this drive to touch so many people in such a personal way. Perhaps it is because donating toilet paper is so easy and yet, at the same time, it is something so necessary for all,” he said.