Marquette is home to an abundance of coffee shops. With so many options to choose from, students often return to the same shops without exploring others. On April 24, the Marquette coffee crawl, hosted by the Public Relations Student Society of America will provide the opportunity to try new shops while raising funds during sexual assault awareness month.
The PRSSA is led by Brianna Sartin, junior marketing major who was re-elected as president for the 2021-22 school year. Sartin is excited for this year’s crawl, as many community members and students were disappointed about the cancellation last year. Being able to support the Women’s Center makes it even better, Sartin said.
“Any money we make from [the coffee crawl] we donate to the Women’s Center. For that reason I think a lot of our ties are outside of NMU, which is kind of what’s different about us,” Sartin said. “Our ticketing is 16 dollars which is around the cost to stay at the women’s center overnight so our pricing is strategic in that way.”
The Women’s Center provides support for males, females and people who identify as transgender and offers many services in protecting and ensuring the safety of individuals.
Tickets will be handled by NMU ticketing and limited to 300 participants. Tickets cover the cost of coffee and any other sweets the coffee shops may put out for the event. The first 100 people to purchase tickets will also receive a free T-shirt. Three time slots are available, and anyone can register for them, Hanna Smith, Marquette coffee crawl firm director, said.
“The time slots will be split between three different sections. These sections are the early bird: 8 a.m. to 10 a.m, midday buzz: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m, and afternoon delight: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m,” Smith said.
Participating shops include 231 West Patisserie, Contrast Coffee, Cruise-N-Coffee Co. Babycakes Muffin Co. Velodrome Coffee Company, andDead River Roasting Co. Most of these shops will be partnered with a support group either within Marquette or associated with NMU.
“April is sexual assault awareness month and we wanted to do something with that,” Sartin said. “There are 4 to 5 informational booths that will be pairing with the coffee shops and those will correlate with sexual assault awareness month. The Women’s Center will have a booth, Women for Women will have a booth, ASNMU will have a booth and counseling—not through NMU but throughout Marquette, will have a booth too. If people are interested in doing more for sexual assault awareness month they’ll have a plethora of people they can ask about how to get involved.”
Each booth will also have a place to donate further funds to the Women’s center. Due to COVID-19, some shops have obtained a sidewalk cafe permit, allowing them to set up booths outside of their shops and allow for more space.
“If you didn’t want to go in you can just go to their booth and get your coffee. You don’t even really have to go in there, touch any door handles or anything like that. Normally there’s a line outside of the coffee shop, but we’ll have a volunteer at every station monitoring the 6-foot distance and making sure everyone’s wearing their mask when they’re not enjoying their coffee,” Sartin said.
The PRSSA often hosts events that aim to help students in resume building and professional development. The coffee crawl is their last event of the year, but an important one to Sartin and the other members. Typically PRSSA focuses on pre-professional development, but the coffee crawl is an excellent way to give back to a cause while still providing a means of that professional development.
“A lot of the work we do is in-house. Anything that we do marketing-wise, promotion, money or funding, anything like that we do in-house. Everyone works together to make an event happen. Recently a lot of the things we do are for a cause,” Sartin said.
While no other events are currently planned due to the end of the semester, the PRSSA members hope to attend a conference in Florida during October, COVID-19 permitting.
Students can attend PRSSA meetings in Jamrich hall, 1322 on Tuesdays at 7 p.m, or find them on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. To purchase tickets for the coffee crawl, visit NMU ticketing.
Individuals seeking help or support can visit https://wcmqt.org/.
