BAP Accounting Majors Continue to Go Above and Beyond for Tornado Victims

06/06/2014 2:47 PM

By Lindsay Anderson

Accounting majors in Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) have given and continue to give back to the community, working and assisting with relief efforts for victims of the Washington tornado from November.

Before the spring semester, some of the students were actual first responders and helped with tornado and storm debris removal, food distribution and even made blankets for children affected by the tornado.

As the spring semester rolled around, BAP first had some of its members return to Washington to perform a day-long clean up project. 

Students also wanted to help tornado victims financially as best they could.  Two fundraisers were held:

• The sale of FosterWear (Foster College of Business t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts)
• The collection of books from faculty and students, which were then sold

All proceeds totaled up to $1,400.

“Beta Alpha Psi chose to donate the total proceeds to the Community Foundation of Central Illinois for deposit into their Disaster Recovery Fund,” Department Head and Professor of Accounting and BAP Faculty Advisor Simon Petravick said.  “This fund is managed by the Long Term Recovery Committee who reviews applications for assistance and provides help to people that have exhausted other forms of support, such as homeowner’s or renter’s assurance.  They also provide funding to the organizations that are managing the disaster relief effort.”

“Members of our chapter are always quick to help others in time of need, especially when it’s close to home,” Beta Alpha Psi president Kristina Korwin ’15 said.  “Not only did this tornado impact our community as a whole, but also directly affected our faculty advisor and some of our members.  Therefore, we decided to help out through volunteering and fundraising, and were fortunate enough to have the resources available to us in order to do so.”

Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) is the national honorary organization for financial information professionals.  For more information on BAP, you may go to: http://lydia.bradley.edu/campusorg/bap/.

The Central Illinois Disaster Recovery Fund is a special community-wide fund formed by the Community Foundation of Central Illinois (CFCI) in collaboration with the Tri-County Long Term Recovery Committee (LTRC). IT was formed in response to the natural disasters that impacted Central Illinois in 2013.  For more information on CFCI, you may go to: http://www.communityfoundationci.org/cidisasterrecoveryfund.