“We do community service not only to help our community, but also to develop serving leadership qualities among our young cadets,” Baker said. “Through community service they can learn how to provide selfless service to others.”
UW Army ROTC is conducting their annual “Santa Ruck” charity event Dec. 8 at 5 a.m. During this event, cadets will be carrying collected donated items in their rucksacks from the IPF, adjacent from war memorial stadium to the Laramie Soup Kitchen on the corner of Fourth Street and University Avenue.
“The main purpose of the event is to support and serve our community during the holiday season,” Cadet Lloyd Baker said. “We have been collecting donation items in room 204 of Wyohall, and we will be accepting donations until the morning of the event, but we will be more than glad to accept donations any time after that too. We can have someone to drop off the donations to the soup kitchen.”
Laramie Soup Kitchen is a non-profit organization, registered with the State of Wyoming, dedicated to providing quality and nutritious food do people for free of charge. According to their official website, “Food is free to all, no requirements needed, or questions asked. Families Welcome.”
“Laramie soup kitchen has been a source of help for people who are in need in the Laramie community,” Baker said. “It makes sense to donate their, because they have such a good reputation.”
Due to last year’s success, ROTC is hopeful for this year’s success as well.
“We have already collected some food items and clothing from the cadets as well as from the people outside the program,” Baker said. “We usually have a significant amount of items to donate, I don’t think this year will be any exception to that.”
Members of the Laramie Soup kitchen were also being prepared for the big event.
“This is really incredible partnership between the university ROTC program and Laramie Soup Kitchen,” Executive Director of Laramie Soup Kitchen, Ted Cramer said. “And to get a really huge influx of food to re-stock our shelves.”
In addition to preparing and serving food, the organization re-distributes the excess food items among other non-profit organizations.
“We stock our shelves and we prepare meals for those who are hungry,” Cramer said. “We also re distribute items we already have in our shelves to up to 15 non-profit organizations in town throughout the year. After this particular event, depending on what comes in, hopefully we will be able to help out two or three other non-profit organizations.”
The soup kitchen will open their doors to the cadets early in the morning. The Cadets in charge of the event are Chelsee Dellinger and Joshua Smith.
“Members of the Laramie Soup Kitchen are looking forward to accompanying them tomorrow morning,” Cramer said. “It’s always such an impressive sight to see students bring so many items to give away to people who are in need this time of the season.”
