On Monday, May 4, Sweet Briar's spring business management lab presented the results of its semester-long effort to raise funds and awareness for Amherst County Habitat for Humanity.

Each semester, the labs plan events that benefit a charity. This spring, it was Habitat for Humanity, while past beneficiaries have included the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. This fall, the lab's efforts will benefit Operation Smile, a children's medical charity.

Usually, the classes consist of about 16 students split into four-person teams, each of which organizes a fundraiser or event. With only six students signed up for the spring lab, however, assistant professor of business Tom Loftus said he initially thought pulling off four events might not be possible.

Concerned, he talked with the students and their four teaching assistants, asking them if they were up to the challenge of organizing two events per three-person team. "They really were enthused and wanted to go for it," he said.

In the end, after hundreds of volunteer hours and some long nights, the students planned and executed four successful events and raised $1,000 for Habitat. Sometimes, though, things looked a little iffy.

For the first event of the semester, the Valentine's Day carnation sale, students had just two weeks to plan. Inspired by last year's sale of 400 carnations, the group ordered 600 flowers which were to be sold for $1 each at Prothro and through door-to-door sales in the residence halls.

Assisted by their classmates and teaching assistants, the students worked more than 111 hours on the project, selling, organizing and delivering flowers. By Valentine's Day, all 600 carnations were sold, with a little help from dining services director Kevin Phelps who bought a couple hundred for Prothro decorations.

After covering costs, $271 was donated to Habitat.

"This was kind of a whirlwind event, but we had so much fun doing it," Laura Mooza '12 said.

A dance-a-thon held at the Boathouse on April 9 originally started out as a dinner/gondola ride/date night with a "Battlestar Galactica" theme, Mooza said, drawing laughs from those in attendance.

The event then evolved into a movie night, but that became problematic because of copyright issues, so the group decided to go in a completely different direction. "One day, when Professor Loftus was gone, we decided to get rid of the movie night," Mooza said. "We made the executive decision to get rid of that and do a dance-a-thon."

With just two weeks to plan and working a combined total of nearly 160 hours, the students collected donations to fund the event, hired a DJ and set a goal of 100 attendees. Everything was going fine until the DJ cancelled.

"[He] thought it would be funny to spill water all over his equipment and he cancelled," Mooza said jokingly, adding that they ended up using an iPod with speakers, which "turned out great."

By the end of the night, more than 100 people had attended the disco-themed event and $198.82 was raised for Habitat. Emily Maycock '12, who did marketing for the group, said if she had a recommendation for future labs, it would be, "Create Plan B in case everything goes wrong."

Earlier that day, "Pie Your Professor" was held in Prothro. It was a time, event planner Alexandra Herrera '11 explained, to raise money and awareness for Habitat and to "seek revenge" on faculty and staff.

Tom Loftus was a good sport at “Pie Your Professor.” At "Pie Your Professor," students bid for the right to throw a pie at the professor or staff member of their choice. In all, 16 Sweet Briar community members were "pied," with the exception of math professor Jim Kirkwood, who the students said they considered too nice to hit with a tin full of whipped cream.

Soccer coach Kevin Fabulich and dean of co-curricular life Cheryl Steele brought in the top bids at $40 each, and $335.50 was donated to Habitat.

The final event of the spring was "Battle of the Bands" on April 17. Students gathered in the Dell to enjoy the sounds of Earthtone, Olesun, Social Viscosity, Identity Crisis and Michelle Raymond, a 2008 graduate of Sweet Briar. The father of lab student Emma Rakosky '12 also performed.

Audience members voted for their favorite group by placing money in a jar. The winning band, Social Viscosity, was awarded a month's worth of airtime on Sweet Briar's radio station, WNRS. More than $100 in donations was collected for Habitat.

A last-minute donation from Loftus brought the final tally for this spring's fundraisers to $1,000.

Loftus attributes the successful effort to hard work by the lab students and hands-on help from teaching assistants Jesse Leiner '10, Nikki Taylor '10, Michelle Anderson '11 and Sara Sheppard '10.

"[The TAs] got more involved in the projects this semester, so I think a lot of the success for the students in the lab was attributed to the enthusiastic participation of TAs who were willing to roll up their sleeves and get involved in making sure the projects were successful," he said.

"In earlier labs, sometimes the TAs served more as advisors with a little more distance. They were problem solvers. When the lab had a problem, they'd go to the TAs. Here, the TAs were really helping out. That was something the students in lab the commented on, how much they appreciated the support and the effort put out by the TAs."

Craig Cassell, executive director of Amherst County Habitat for Humanity, said he and his construction committee are looking for ways that future labs can become more involved - not only in fundraising and awareness building, but "swinging hammers" as well.

"The fundraising runs up there, parallel with construction as far as importance, but we want to give the college student the full experience of Habitat," Cassell said. "We need the College involved. ... The College lab is extremely important."

Amherst County Habitat for Humanity is currently working on its 28th house.