Skip to main content

Chemical Society Students Raise Money for Children’s Hospital

SLCC student Jenni Orr (far left) and some of the organizers of her club's Festival of Trees project.

When Jenni Orr’s daughter needed surgery at the tender age of four, she experienced just how much Primary Children’s Hospital (PCH) would come to mean in her life. “Our doctors were amazing,” says Orr, a mother of three. “The nurses, staff – everyone – were so good to her and kind. It really helped to alleviate a lot of our worries.”

This past fall, Orr, 33, a chemistry student at Salt Lake Community College, saw just how much Primary Children’s means to Utah when she took the lead on a fundraising project for her club American Chemical Society Student Affiliate (ACS). The group recently finished their holiday service project with a fundraiser for PCH that raised $9,700 during the non-profit hospital’s annual Festival of Trees, which began 49 years ago. The previous year’s festival raised $2.8 million for children at PCH.

Led by Orr, about 50 SLCC students worked over four months, which included gathering athlete signatures on items from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. They also assembled U of U and BYU trees that were auctioned off during the Festival. Orr says tree displays with sports themes tend to attract a lot of attention and sell well. “This year we wanted to play off the rivalry,” she adds.

Faculty worked with students from August through November to complete the project. The finished product was displayed during the first week of December at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, where over 100,000 visitors were able to view decorated, donated trees that occupied 220,000 square feet of space. This is the 25th year the ACS has participated in the Festival.

Orr said the project helped her in getting to know SLCC and the broader community it serves. “It was such a great experience to see everyone come out to support Primary Children’s,” she says. Orr, who already has a bachelor’s degree in Family Life Studies from Utah State University, plans to graduate from SLCC next August before moving on to medical school. The Grantsville resident said her goal is to become an emergency room doctor.

Popular posts from this blog

Rev Up Your Future at SLCC Annuals Hop into College

SLCC West Valley Center will be opening its doors on Friday, August 2, from 6-9 pm for their annual lowrider event that celebrates the automotive culture and welcomes current, past, and future Bruins into the SLCC community. This unique event allows lowriders to showcase their vehicles and for spectators to witness the creativity, craftsmanship, and passion that goes into a lowrider car. From the sleek custom paint jobs to the impressive hydraulics showcased at the hop-off, attendees get immersed in the vibrant culture created by SLCC West Valley’s community. Beyond the car show, Hop into College provides prospective students and their families the opportunity to explore SLCC, engage with their future peers, staff and faculty and obtain valuable insight into the degrees and programs offered. Furthermore, the community is provided with countless beneficial resources not only as an SLCC student but as a community member. Whether interested in learning more about the lowrider community o...

Recognizing SLCC's 2025 Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Andrew Vogt, PhD Associate Professor, Engineering

The Distinguished Faculty Lecturer is a recognition of quality work by one of Salt Lake Community College’s full-time faculty and a charge to develop that work over an academic year into a public presentation. A committee chosen by the Associate Provost for Learning Advancement selects the faculty lecturer each year. The lecture takes place in the spring. Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Andrew Vogt, PhD Associate Professor, Engineering Dr. Andrew Vogt’s teaching philosophy is guided by two principles, curiosity and efficiency.  “Curiosity leads us to study a topic and allows us to really understand the ins and outs of research, while efficiency is all about sustainability,” he says. Andrew describes curiosity as a pure, open-minded impulse to explore, such as the ease with which children learn new concepts with virtually no instruction. Efficiency adds maturity to that childlike impulse, creating structures and pathways for accomplishment.  Andrew’s work has alwa...

SLCC All Access

Did you know you can access SLCC lab software for free from your own computing device?   Come learn how SLCC is supporting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) with All Access. The goal of All Access is to provide any time, any place, and any device access to college computing and lab software SLCC students, faculty and staff.  All Access works on almost any device from a PC or Mac, to tablets and smart phones.  With All Access you can use programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, AutoCAD, MatLab, Mathematica, MyITLab, NetBeans, and online Library Databases.  We also provide you with online storage space so you can save your files in the cloud and have access to them wherever you are.  Anyone is welcome to this session where we will cover the basics of All Access, give you some tips and tricks for getting the most out the system, and we’ll also have some people there to help get your computer set up.  When and where: ...