WMU engineering students washed cars for 12 hours last Monday for the American Red Cross’s relief effort in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina.
Most of the societies and organizations affiliated with the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences worked in teams of 15 to 20 in front of the Parkview Campus engineering building. Students from other academic programs also joined the effort.
Many students from several classes also participated in the car wash. IME Professor Dr. Betsy Aller said that her IME 4920 Multidisciplinary Senior Project students went out to the car wash site en masse following their class.
According to Dan Higgs, president of ASME, which assumed responsibility for counting the money, the event collected $7,559.41.
IME’s Dr. David Lyth challenged students and other professors to hit the target that dunked him into the water.
The students also sold coffee and doughnuts. Everyone was also offered an opportunity to “Dunk the Dean” or one of several professors.
IME Professor Dr. David Lyth estimated that students and professors had dunked him at least a dozen times in water that he said “looked like it might have been imported from the hurricane floodwaters.”
Greene praised the students for organizing the car-washing effort in less than a week. Six days before the event, representatives of at least 22 different engineering societies brainstormed and divvied up responsibilities for various aspects of the project. “This was a great example of team work and leadership,” he said.
As her car was being washed, WMU President Judith Bailey praised the students for their efforts in the 91-degree heat.
Several area businesses and organizations supported the event. Goggin Rental provided the dunk tank, which was filled with water by Kalamazoo Public Safety Fire Station 7.
Wal-Mart supplied car-washing supplies. Sweetwater’s Donut Mill donated ten dozen doughnuts and discounted even more. Qdoba Mexican Grill will donate $1.50 to the American Red Cross for every redeemed meal coupon handed out at the car wash.
CEAS provided all car-washing equipment, and Greene expressed appreciation for the efforts of the WMU grounds people who came to Parkview before 7 a.m. to set up hoses. “Besides helping us get things ready, they were also the first people to get their cars washed,” he said.
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