This year the Business Professionals of America (BPA) club was awarded with the “Outstanding Student Group for Community Service Award” at the 2025 Student Success Awards.
The chapter was selected to receive this award for community service efforts with Earth Day urban cleanups, Santa’s Wish List contributions and Second Harvest Food Pantry volunteer shifts.
For two years in a row now, BPA joined in partnership with Sustain Dane and Ian’s Pizza to do urban cleanup at Garver Feed Mill.
During each of those times, members collected an estimated total 26 lbs. of trash, which included spoons, cups, bottles, grocery bags, food wrappers, (Ray-Ban?!) sunglasses, metal wires, several tiny pieces of plastic and a whole lot of cigarette butts left behind as waste in the Starkweather Creek neighborhood. When that trash is left behind, it can wash into our lakes, rivers and other waterways, harming the wildlife and our planet. So that’s why humans should clean it up, and make sure to properly throw things away and recycle.
For Santa’s Wish List, this is the second year in a row where BPA club members bought toys for families who need extra assistance getting toys for their kids.
BPA President Landon Dierkes organized an outing where members donated sports balls – soccer, football and basketball – and Lego toy sets for the kids, and honestly the team had fun walking around Walmart sharing stories about growing up and what they got on Christmas.
It’s very important to have tangible ways to give back to families in need, because as business professionals our members trying to get ahead for ourselves and our families, but we all need to remember how we got to where we are and where we started from.
Lastly, Communications Officer Nikolas Posada and State Vice President Kai Brito both have volunteered at Second Harvest Food Pantry because they both have been in situations where they needed to use the food pantry aid to get by.
They understood how personal financial situations can put someone in a spot where they might need a little help to get through the problems of day to day living, but both of them now are in situations where they can give back, and are grateful for the help that they once had at the food pantries.
“Second Harvest provided us with a basic need, and I wanted to thank them by helping with their mission. It has been a great organization to be with where I get to meet new people and be involved with a diverse amount of projects,” Posada said.