SMU 1Ls raising money for homeless children

First-year students at SMU’s Dedman School of Law in Dallas are on a mission this holiday season to raise $10,000 to buy blankets, books and stuffed animals for area homeless children. Ann Chao and Mike Winn, both 1Ls, are heading the effort to sell holiday cards – featuring a snowman drawn by one of Dallas’ homeless children – to raise the funds for Project Night Night, a national nonprofit that provides tote bags to children aged 10 and younger in homeless shelters. Each bag contains an age-appropriate book, a blanket and a stuffed animal, Chao says. The students are selling packages of five cards and envelopes for $20. “That’s the cost to provide one child with one completely filled bag,” says Chao. The funds raised will buy totes for children in Dallas area shelters, she says. “We have about 80 people in our class,” she says. “So if everybody passes out five, and we’re hoping some people will sell more, we should be able to reach our goal.”
-- Jeanne Graham