2008 Woodie Awards
Memorial Union lounge makeover completed
Chloe Thompson
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: News
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But after the receiving of a generous $20,000 donation from two University of Rhode Island alumni and about $3,000 raised through "Scrounge for the Lounge," a student philanthropy challenge, the lounge boasts uniformly re-upholstered chairs, freshly decorated student booths and a more vibrant blue carpet.
"It took a huge amount of time," Bruce Hamilton, director of the Memorial Union, said yesterday.
The construction began at the beginning of the holiday break, and ended about a week ago, just in time for students coming back to school.
Though student members of the Union Board raised the idea of redoing the lounge a few years ago, Hamilton said the delay in construction was only to accommodate the lives of students on campus.
"[The chairs] were taken apart, cleaned, sanded and re-upholstered," he said. "We didn't want to reconstruct with students there."
In addition to this, the booths were renovated with decorative wood trim and were repainted.
The approximately $3,000 was raised in a two-year period by T-shirt sales at Homecoming and student donations. Bernadine Sadwin, assistant director of the Annual Giving Office in the URI Foundation, said the amount met her expectations of fund raising, though it got off to a later start than anticipated.
"I want [students] to see the lounge and say, 'Wow, look what we can do,' and, hopefully, they can exceed my expectations on the next project," Sadwin said.
She added the fund raising would continue through sales of T-shirts at basketball games and any student donations. The challenge is hoping to raise about $5,000 by the end of June.
Along with the funds raised by the student philanthropy challenge, Hamilton said the Union's budget made up the rest of the cost of the labor and materials needed.