Northern Michigan University's Public Relations Students Society of America (PRSSA) hosted its 6th annual Coffee Crawl in downtown Marquette. This event is held yearly in April to coincide with Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Proceeds go directly to the Women's Center of Marquette. This year's event raised more than $6,000.
“The NMU PRSSA Coffee Crawl fundraiser event is one that the Women's Center has come to count on year after year, said Andrea Numikoski, Women's Center Development Director. “The fundraiser allows us to provide safe shelter, food and support services to, on average, 20 individuals and their families for an entire week. That's a tremendous help and we are so grateful to have this relationship.”
Participants received “passports” before starting the crawl, beginning at Dead River Coffee on Baraga Street and ending at Velodrome on Third. Crawlers stopped at 11 shops across Marquette. Shops provide samples of their house blends, seasonal lattes, chai teas or signature teas. Some of this year's samples included lavender latte (Velodrome), Samoa latte (Cruisin'), chai tea latte (231 West), salted caramel cold brew (Donckers) and house blends.
“Coffee crawl is a great opportunity for students to get involved outside the classroom and in the community,” said Nick Jones, PRSSA VP of chapter support. “Every year it is entirely student-operated; because of that, there is so much to learn.”
NMU PRSSA meets weekly throughout the winter semester to plan and coordinate this event. PRSSA plans the route, raffle sales and prices, coordination with the shops, news and radio segments, and traditional/social media promotion.
Throughout the semester, members break into teams to complete various tasks as part of the planning process. During the crawl, participants also interact with representatives of local organizations such as the Women's Center, Marquette Exchange Club and NMU Feminism4All.
For more information about the Marquette Women's Center, visit https://wcmqt.org
To learn more about NMU PRSSA, follow @nmuprssa on Instagram.
