Contact:
Chris Rogerson, 778.782.5803, rogerson@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

Photos on Flickr

Dozens of Simon Fraser University students in training as residence advisors will serve up hundreds of baked potatoes on Vancouver’s cold and wet downtown streets tonight.

Their goal is to model the old adage “actions speak louder than words”—the theme of this year’s Residence Life training program.  Students hired into the program live in residence with their peers to provide ongoing emotional, academic and community support.

Residence Life associate director Chris Rogerson says a farewell speech delivered by outgoing SFU Chancellor Brandt Louie just after the Stanley Cup riot last June inspired tonight’s activity.

Louie said: “As a community of educators we must help our young leaders of tomorrow realize the world judges us on our actions not our intentions.” Louie was reacting to telephone pleas he’d received from self-confessed rioters who wanted his forgiveness for damaging a downtown outlet in his London Drug store chain.

“It really resonated with me,” says Rogerson, who set out to help this year’s Residence Life recruits integrate the concept into their on-the-job training.

“Besides team-building, counseling, cultural awareness and crisis management skills, we also teach them the importance of meeting known needs that are outside of their immediate community. The baked potato event exemplifies this.”

After scrubbing, foil-wrapping and baking the potatoes (donated by Nesters Market at UniverCity on Burnaby Mountain), the students plan to distribute the hot spuds at three locations: Carrall Street and Hastings; Main and Hastings and Pigeon Park. Their estimated time of arrival is 6 p.m. after boarding buses at the SFU Burnaby campus at 4:30 p.m.

They also plan to bring clothes to donate to those in need.

This event is linked to a program run by S.P.U.D (Serving Potatoes to Unrecognized Devas) Patrol, a Lower Mainland-based non-profit initiative aimed at helping charitable groups “distribute nourishing home-baked, foil-wrapped potatoes directly to those who need them.”

Last August another themed Residence Life advisor training event led 70 SFU students to save Vancouver police 90 hours of work by helping the police paint over graffiti in Vancouver’s downtown Granville area.

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