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

Read more at michigandaily.com

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