College Students Turn Drunken Tirade into a Campaign for Social Good
There’s nothing college students love more than YouTube videos and mac and cheese; better yet, YouTube videos about mac and cheese. When a YouTube video of a drunken college student aggressively demanding “Jalapeno and Bacon Mac and Cheese” went viral, Sathya Peri, Devin Quinn knew exactly how to turn a negative into a positive. Junior Sathya Peri and Freshman Devin Quinn are both Students of Bentley University, and Erick Pinos is a junior from MIT and were brought together by their desire to spark social change through social media.
Peri, Quinn, and Pinos started off as a part of a small group of friends who wanted to do something meaningful for the local community during the Holidays, and specifically, Thanksgiving. They decided their mission was to aid homelessness and hunger by providing a bowl of jalapeno and bacon mac and cheese to 100 homeless people. Then the Jalapeno Bacon Mac and Cheese indiegogo campgain was created.
You may have actually already seen this campaign being promoted on Facebook, and perhaps you even donated. Their efforts and goals grew as more and more people jumped on board to aid them. They eventually collected enough money to be able to provide a full meal to those they will be serving, not just the mac and cheese. Motivated by the success their project was seeing, they partnered with Y2Y Harvard Square, a shelter for homeless youth, to provide 30 individuals with warm beanies, socks and gloves to youth in Boston. Their most recent efforts have allowed them to partner with Strideline; for every pair of socks purchased through their unique fundraising link, a pair will be donated to the cause. Recentley, lovepop, a 3D popup greeting card company also come on board the campaign as their newest sponsor.
The team will be hosting their event in Boston and there, the boys among other volunteers will be serving mac and cheese to homeless youth as well as providing them with the donated and purchased socks, beanies and gloves.
The Jalapeno and Bacon Mac and Cheese Video provided inspiration – this was the vehicle one group needed to discover their passion towards helping fix an issue, helping those struggling with homelessness and hunger. What I’ve found is that while most people do care about the community, they rarely take action. Yet, Peri, Quinn, and Pinos took the initiative to do something, and are seeing an incredible following. Wishing them luck as they continue this exciting journey!
To follow their success and/ or make a donation please visit the link below:
http://bit.ly/macncheese4change