News > April 17, 2008

By Liza Greenspun | Senior writer

English Instructor Mary Niepold’s Introduction to Professional Writing class is sponsoring a Bingo charity event at 7 p.m. April 22 in Benson University Center room 401. This class chose to hold a Bingo event because they have spent the semester working as a team with Senior Services of Forsyth County.

Junior Lauren Hubbard said the class has 15 students and everything they do is team-oriented. At the beginning of the class, Niepold gave the students an introduction to writing. Then, throughout the semester, the class profiled individual senior citizens at the Williams Day Center for Alzheimer’s patients, and wrote copies for the Senior Services Web site and brochures, Hubbard said. The class objective is to work with a non-profit organization, and learn how to write in order to help that organization, which explains why the students affectionately call the class “Writing for a Purpose.” Before actually attending the class, the students did not know which non-profit organization they would be helping.

“You saw this kind of scared look across our faces,” Hubbard said of the class’s reaction when they learned they would be helping Senior Services. Hubbard explained that many students did not know if it would be scary working with seniors because it calls to the attention issues of aging and deteriorating health. Hubbard said the first time the class visited Williams Day Center they were timid, but by the end of the day, they were friends with the patients, learning that seniors are “human libraries.”

“They’re full of so much wisdom and still full of so much energy, which is what we want to convey to our peers on campus,” Hubbard said. Hence, the bingo event. Several of Senior Service’s participants will be in attendance at the event. The event will cost $5 per bingo card, a capella groups Chi Rho and Minor Variation will perform and “Old People Rock” T-shirts will be sold for $10. Interspersed throughout the bingo games will be facts about Senior Services of Forsyth County, the largest organization of its kind in the Southeast. Bingo winners will receive prizes from the Winston-Salem Warthogs, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Rose’s Deli and Fresh Market or signed university memorabilia. All proceeds will benefit Senior Services. Senior Services provides many services, including Meals on Wheels and more. According to Hubbard, their motto is “Helping Seniors Live with Dignity,” and the organization will provide services regardless of a client’s ability to pay. At the recent Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards, Niepold received the Faculty Excellence Award for Course Development for this course, which doubles as part of the journalism and entrepreneurship minors.