Fundraising!!!

Here's a bonus post because you all have been waiting so patiently.

At the end of our stay on the island each semester has a very elegant banquet where we invite all the professors as well as past members of our class to come together and have one last fun time before finals and leaving for clinicals.

This party is of course not cheap and can sometimes run as much as 80,000ecd (~$30k).  But that covers the venue, food for about 400 people, DJ, as well as open bar for the majority of the evening.  Because of these high costs, each semester's class fundraises through the 7 semesters here on the island to pay for the event.  This is usually accomplished with different bake sales, useful items, clothing, and events.

Some of the fun bake sales we've had in the past have been: cup of dirt(pudding/oreo cookies), taco bar, thanksgiving(turkey with all the fixings), kebabs, pulled pork sandwiches, etc.  Each semester usuallly runs a bake sale which occurs once or twice throughout the semester and the profit goes towards their banquet at the end.

Sometimes a semester will come up with an item that they personalize and sell that's useful.
We've had...

• digital stethoscope timers that help with measuring pulse and respiratory rates
• pens with a tablet stylus in one that have Ross University written on the side
• penlights in different semester colors that help with determining pupillary light reflexes

Clothing is also a big seller.  Each semester comes up with designs for a t-shirt that usually have an inside joke associated with them that has to do with life down here on the island, or veterinary medicine in general.

• There's a shirt that says "FOCMA Life" on the front with a cross section of a feline leukemia virus.  FOCMA is the acronym for a type of protein that shows up in infected cats that can help us determine if in fact they have been infected.  It also sounds like something else that a stressed out vet student might say ;-)
• We have another shirt that has "Vet School" on the front and "It's like med school, only harder" on the back.

There are definitely a lot more but those are some of the funny/most interesting ones that I like.

One of the last fundraisers we have down here on the island are events.  Each semester usually is response for an event that occurs during the semester (6th semester always is responsible for running the Mr. RUSVM event I spoke about earlier).  Other semesters have their special event that they will run through their stay on the island (Red semester runs an American idol-like event we call "Island-Idol").

This semester, Blue semester (my semester), decided to try and throw a daytime carnival which is happening tomorrow.  It's going to have a bounce house, carnival games, easter egg hunt, food, as well as a beer garden for the adults.  We're also going to have an auction to "Pie-the-Professor."  I'm really excited to see how it turns out!  I'll try and take some pictures to show you all after tomorrow.

So yea, these are just a few of things we do when we have a little bit of free time and it isn't being spent sleeping :-)