OptiMize aids
groups responding
to COVID-19
Last month, optiMize, a student
organization offering funding and
guidance to students leading self-
directed projects, launched its Com-
munity Aid Relief Fund. The $25,000
fund will provide students with sup-
port for mutual aid and community-
based projects responding to the
COVID-19 crisis.
Through the fund, students at
the University of Michigan, Eastern
Michigan University and Washtenaw
Community College had the ability to
apply for a grant up to $5,000 to sup-
port their community project.
Business
sophomore
Megha
Kunju, optiMize storytelling and
marketing lead, told The Daily the
organization decided to create the
fund to support college students
leading their communities in the
fight against COVID-19.
“We exist to help students make a
positive impact in their communities
and in this moment of crisis, we saw
so many inspiring examples of stu-
dent leaders and community mem-
bers working on various projects
to help each other,” Kunju said. “As
an organization that funds social-
impact projects, it just made sense
that we would do what we can to pro-
vide some support to these efforts.”
The Community Aid Relief Fund
granted money to nine projects serv-
ing Washtenaw county through a
variety of ways, including supporting
the undocumented community and
making personal protective equip-
ment.
Kunju said that the mission of
optiMize is to help students ask the
question that if no one is stepping up,
“why not me?” Kunju said the lead-
ers of these nine projects stood out
to them as people who had asked that
question.
“This is their project,” she said.
“We are just there to support them
and give them the support that they
need.”
LSA senior Lindsay Calka is the
Vice President of Michigan Move-
ment, an organization that gives aid
to people experiencing homelessness
and poverty in the Washtenaw com-
munity. She also works for Ground-
cover News, a street newspaper
that works to raise awareness about
homelessness and combat poverty.
Calka orchestrated a “deferred
donation” from the Community
Aid Relief Fund through Michigan
Movement, who then donated the
money to Groundcover. OptiMize’s
fund granted $4,200 to this project.
“We are donating on behalf of
optiMize through Michigan Move-
ment,” Calka said. “Groundcover
didn’t need care packages like we
usually do. They just needed money
because vendors lost their jobs basi-
cally being unable to sell paper on the
street. And so that was the best call
that we made, that was just to straight
up give the money to Groundcover to
have in their fund for them to allo-
cate to vendors as needed.”
LSA junior Amytess Girgis,co-
founder and co-host of the Mutual-
ity Podcast project, applied for the
grant. The podcast has since been
renamed to “Concerning Us: Stories
of Organizing, Resistance and Resil-
ience.”
“(Since I’m) a college student and
(my co-founder is) a recent graduate,
it’s not like we have a ton of money
lying around,” Girgis said. “When
we heard that optiMize was offering
these grants to help folks get projects
started, we applied right away.”
The fund granted the Mutual-
ity Podcast $2,000. The soon-to-be-
released podcast aims to propel the
voices of people doing critical work
to support the most vulnerable dur-
ing the COVID-19 crisis.
“Without this grant, we wouldn’t
have been able to afford audio equip-
ment and since we can’t go to the
U-M libraries right now to use their
equipment, we needed to get our
own,” Girgis said.
She also noted that the funding
has allowed them to offer a stipend
to the guests that they have on the
show, as well as to compensate some
of the podcast’s staff.pandemics so
that things would be provided for,
there would be supplies and they
would have a strategy,” Biden said.
“Joe would bring together the
leaders of all nations so we could
work on this pandemic together
… that’s what it’s going to take, a
global initiative.”
2
Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
$25,000 awarded
to nine projects
Alumni Association
seeks to support alumni-
owned companies
On April 30, the University of
Michigan’s Alumni Association
launched a directory of alumni-
owned small businesses to support
business owners amid the COVID-
19
pandemic.
From
offering
referrals to making donations, the
directory includes a running list of
actions the University community
can do to support small businesses.
Upasna
Kakroo,
Alumni
Association
executive
director
of marketing, noted the value of
having a large alumni network
of
over
620,000
alumni
in
strengthening the support and
collaboration between business
owners.
“Knowing how much Michigan
alumni care and want to support
each other, we hope that through
the directory they’re able to find
these
businesses
and
support
them,” Kakroo said. “Using our
social channels, we will continue
to promote the ability to add small
businesses to the directory as well
as raise awareness for the directory
itself.”
The
directory
features
businesses from across the country
and in a variety of industries such
as food service, fitness, law, art and
broadcasting. One of the businesses
included is Blank Slate Creamery,
an ice cream parlor located in Ann
Arbor and owned by Janice Sigler, a
1991 University alum.
Blank Slate was closed from
March 23 to April 23 but received
an
overwhelmingly
positive
response from the community
since
reopening,
according
to
Sigler.
“We
have
adjusted
our
operations
to
advance
online
orders for pints and sundae kits so
we can reduce the number of staff
working at one time,” Sigler said.
“We typically sell out of the pints
we’ve scooped each day, which is
great. And we are now producing
ice cream again.”
Despite resuming ice cream
production and being able to
implement a system of minimal
contact ice cream pickup, Sigler
says she and her team miss
customer interaction.
“We are in this business to see
the smiles on customer faces when
we hand them an eye-popping
dessert or their favorite flavor,”
Sigler said. “So that’s been a really
hard adjustment.”
Another business on the list is
Frameable Faces Photography in
West Bloomfield, owned by Doug
Cohen, 1992 University graduate,
and his wife. Since the studio’s
closure, the couple have shifted
their focus to photo restoration,
photography training via Skype and
Zoom, and consulting with clients
on past and future photo sessions.
Cohen stressed the importance of
maintaining their online presence
now more than ever.
Directory launched
for small businesses
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