12 March 2019
Valeria Rodriguez
The S.H.E. Club at UCCS stands for service, health and empowerment. This group of female students has decided to dedicate a portion of their time to help raise awareness and donations to certain charities.
This year, the team on March 19, 2019 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. will be hosting a fundraiser at Skate City in hopes of raising money to support the club.
General admission is five dollars and skate rental is $2.50. 50 percent of guest purchases will go towards S.H.E., provides the club event website.
The money collected at this fundraiser in April will go towards hosting and working with Sue Dean of Holy Ovarian Cancers Society, a local community of people devoted to assisting families living with a member that is fighting ovarian cancer.
Grace Bartlett is a sophomore majoring in biomedical science, as well as the president of the S.H.E. Club at UCCS.
Bartlett was inspired to first initiate the club last fall semester, her freshman year, because of her involvement in clubs in high school. She sensed that she was lacking in involvement at UCCS.
Bartlett was encouraged to start the new club after discussing her idea with her friend.
“I’ve always really liked volunteering and I’d like to work with things that I care about like domestic violence,” said Bartlett, sharing additional motivators for the start of the club.
Last year in October, the club, during domestic violence awareness month, attended the Tessa 5K Survivors Run/Walk, in addition to collecting donations for Tessa by collecting toiletries for the survivors.
The organization Tessa is known to supply shelter to victims that have survived domestic violence.
Besides being a club that focuses on helping others, they are also a club that provides a positive environment to all, boys and girls.
“We just happen to be all girls,” Bartlett says.
“Everybody is welcome!” she says when describing who can join the club.
The club also endorses activities to build positive and empowering friendships. Some of the activities attended in the past by this group include a yoga and a self-defense class.
Her goal is to provide a positive environment where people can have healthy friendships.
“Especially in the age of Instagram, you’re constantly comparing and I’d like it to be a place where we lift each other up and bounce off each other’s ideas, like admiring each other rather than competing with each other,” she says.
Bartlett thinks it’s important to have the S.H.E. Club at UCCS because “we work with all local organizations, so we’re giving back to Colorado Springs.”
She expressed that this club motivates “cohesive” work between people that are “working together for a greater cause.”
Furthermore, she thinks the club provides an activity to take a break from school to go volunteer with new friends.
Bartlett is looking forward to the addition of more committed members. “I’m most excited for us to gain more members that are excited about it and have new ideas,” she says.
The club usually schedules their hour long meetings randomly to discuss ideas for the club and the couple of organizations they are interested in helping out for that semester.
If you desire to help organizations and make new friends or would like to acquire more information on the S.H.E. Club’s future events, contact President Grace Bartlett at [email protected] or visit the club’s page on Mountain Lion Connect. The club also has an Instagram account @uccsshe where events and meetings are to be advertised.