Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

On September 29th BonaResponds will be hosting its first ever Blanket Making and Collection Day. The day will be done with the help of WarmSnugglyBlanket, LiveStrong, and Soles4Souls. The goal of the day, like that of all BonaResponds Days, is simple: To help. WarmSnugglyBlanket is a part of BonaResponds whose main aim is to help people with cancer. It was started to honor the late Marge Mahar who, previous to losing her battle with Breast Cancer this past Spring, had wanted to help those in their own personal battles with cancer. The blanket idea came out of an experience that Marge had during her final weeks when she had trouble sleeping. She shared that, as she sat on her bed coughing and worrying, she thought about all of the people who had reached out to her from all around the world to let her know that they were praying for her. She felt fortunate to have so many people supporting her in her fight, and she decided to pray for all of those people who were praying for her. Ma...

BonaResponds, St. Bonaventure University’s volunteer disaster-relief organization, is usually the one riding to the rescue of people in need. But on Wednesday, James Mahar Jr., associate professor of finance at St. Bonaventure and founder of BonaResponds, found his group on the receiving end, taking delivery of a new, light-weight, aluminum flatbed trailer won in a national contest – a contest Mahar didn’t even know his group was entered in. The chain of events began last fall when Olean pharmacist Vic Vena, a longtime friend of the university, went online to register for a warranty for a Featherlite trailer he had just bought from a Rochester-area dealership. While he was filling in the form online, a pop-up promotion offered the chance to enter Featherlite’s national “Win 1, Give 1” trailer contest. “So I clicked on it,” said Vena. He was asked to nominate a non-profit organization that could use a Featherlite trailer. Vena thought immediately of BonaResponds. BonaResponds was forme...

BonaResponds, a St. Bonaventure University community volunteer organization, is inviting the public to help prepare boxes of food for children affected by the earthquake in Haiti. The food will be packaged during a daylong work session Saturday, Sept. 11, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Reilly Center on campus. The organization, under the direction of Dr. Jim Mahar, associate professor of finance, will be working with a group called Feed My Starving Children to pack enough boxes of food to feed 100,000 children. They will also be looking for new volunteers to continue fundraising efforts for Haiti. “We really want and need community groups to get involved, including churches, Scout groups, school classes, etc.,” says Mahar. Volunteers will work in shifts of two hours, and may work one or multiple shifts. According to Feed My Starving Children, the meals to be packed are called MannaPack-Rice. They consist of rice, dehydrated vegetables and chicken flavored vitamins, can be cooked with boi...

It’s summer vacation. The St. Bonaventure University campus is quiet. Most students have returned home for the summer. But that hasn’t stopped BonaResponds, the university’s volunteer-run disaster-relief group, from working hard. If you’re looking for something to do this summer or are feeling extra Franciscan, join BonaResponds for its summer Local Service Day on July 11. The service day is open to the public. “With the vast majority of our students away for summer, we really need your help,” said Dr. Jim Mahar, associate professor finance and founder of BonaResponds. “If you are available and in the area, we'd love to have you come out.” BonaResponds will team up with Rebuilding Together, the nation’s leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize communities, to work on three homes in the Olean area. Work will include prepping homes so that they can be repainted on July 25. The work day will go from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Volunteers should meet at Dress...