Computer Science Department Joins Together to Feed the Hungry

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Computer science staff assistants Sandy Ferrara and Eileen Wilczak were part of a team that volunteered at the Open Door Mission Dec. 15.

RIT’s Computer Science Department is in the holiday spirit. For the third consecutive year, a committee within the department organized a community service opportunity that allowed students, faculty and staff to work together as a team.

A food drive was held in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and student groups held a variety of events to raise money, including a dodgeball tournament. Their efforts culminated Monday night with a trip to Rochester’s Open Door Mission. The department delivered two shopping carts full of food and close to $400 to the shelter.

“We try to do something like this every year,” says Paul Tymann, chair of the Computer Science Department. “Our goal is to bring people together and to give back to the community. The community has given so much to RIT.”

That evening, Tymann joined staff members Sandy Ferrara and Eileen Wilczak, professors Walter Wolf and Manjeet Rege and sixth-year student Andy Brown to prepare and serve meals to 65 people at the shelter. Encore, RIT’s female a capella group, was on hand to sing holiday music.

“It sure gave me a view of Rochester that I had never seen before,” Tymann says. “Seeing so many people without food to eat or a bed to sleep in sure makes you look at your own situation a lot differently.”