EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University students will be heading back to classes for the first time since the tragic shooting last Monday. As students return to campus, thousands volunteered to make sure the students came back with love and positivity.
When they first came up with this idea, they thought maybe only 20 people showed up; well now there are thousands.
“It symbolizes what the Spartan community is,” said MSU grad student Emily Damman.
Damman came up with the concept of “Spartan Sunday” with her friends. They are all in MSU’s speech pathology masters program together.
“She literally sent a text message in our grad school friends group chat and she was like ‘hey guys what do you think about going around Sunday, passing out some goodies?’ and we were like, yea I love that idea,” said MSU grad student Olivia Wiegers.
Within days they found out they weren’t the only ones who loved that idea.
“We put out one call to Spartan Nation and they answered in four days, thousands of people answered,” said Damman.
And they got creative, from offering free corgi cuddles to free dad jokes. Not only did people show up in droves Sunday, they donated their money.
“Us girls and my mom we were able to do $23,000 worth of shopping for squish mellows, journals notebooks any type of comfort item for students who come today,” said Damman.
" I don’t want any student to focus on the negative although it’s so hard I just want them to walk these sidewalks today and just feel like they are loved in every way,” said Friend.
The group said there are still donations coming and plans to give that to the spartan strong foundation.
Those looking to donate to MSU can click here.