Feb 18, 2015 By Andy Stanko for The Yellow Jacket 4 min read

Bonner Scholars will be offering a tasty alternative to the dining hall and Bee Hive on Friday, Feb. 20, to benefit the program’s longest standing service site.

Students are cooking and selling cheesesteaks from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Beehive to raise money for the Open Door Youth Outreach Center in Pittsburgh.

Students can get their hands on a cheesesteak, fries, two cookies and a drink with just $2 and a meal swipe. Another available option is to buy a meal for $7.50, or a just a cheesesteak for $5.

“The $2 completely benefits the Open Door,” said Bonner coordinator Adrienne Tharp. “Anybody from campus or the community that purchases, that’s 100 percent profit for Open Door.”

Bonner students are involved in facilitating the Open Door’s Friday night activities that run from late September through May.

“They do a lot of different programs, but our students are primarily involved with their Friday night rec program,” said Tharp. “It’s just an opportunity for them to interact with youth.”

Open Door offers a variety of options, such as a computer room, art room, snacks and games in the gym, for the youth of Crafton Heights and surrounding areas.

“The minute we walk in the door, the kids are lined up waiting for us to come in,” said Kyle Digiandomenico, senior Bonner Scholar and site coordinator for Bonners at Open Door. “They just want to throw dodgeballs. It’s really fun, that part – throwing dodgeballs at the kids.”

Open Door hosts students from kindergarten through fifth grade from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and students from sixth grade through twelfth grade from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Bonner students serve for both sessions every Friday night, thanks to cooperation with the university to get volunteers to the service site.

“We’re fortunate that we have vehicles the students can reserve to get up there,” said Tharp. “They leave here around 4:30 p.m. or five and get back to campus around 11 p.m.”

The opportunity to go and interact with the children is not limited to those involved in the Bonner program.

“The interest has greatly increased, so we usually send two vehicles on Friday nights so anywhere from seven to 14 students can go,” said Tharp. “Anyone can go, it’s not open just to Bonners, other students that are not Bonners go.”

The support from Waynesburg students has been very well-received by those leading the activities on Friday nights during the school year.

“The supervisor at the site tells us that without Waynesburg present, the site wouldn’t survive because they have a hard time finding volunteers,” said Digiandomenico. “They have a hard time getting funding, so something would have happened.”

Bonner Scholars have been involved in giving back to the service site through a number of other smaller fundraisers and funds available from the Bonner program. Previous fundraising efforts have gone toward repairing the computer room and a leak in the roof, and redoing floors and walls.

“A lot of students have been volunteering at Open Door for quite some time, and like any older building, it needs some repairs and some work,” said Tharp. “Last year some of the students that graduated used some of their Bonner monies that they get to do some repairs. There’s s till some need.”

The facility is dated and showing its age, so the fundraising efforts are geared toward upgrading and updating the venue.

There are also issues with the gym floor that the Bonners hope to be able to address with the proceeds gathered from the sale of the cheesesteaks.

“The floor is bowing, so we’re looking to repair the main floor,” said Digiandomenico. “We’re also looking to replace the lighting fixtures, and we’re looking to paint. It hasn’t been painted since probably the 70s.”

Goals for the fundraiser go beyond making the necessary repairs, but also expanding and attracting more youth to Open Door.

“We get about 30-40 students from each group, so probably a total of 80 a night,” said Digiandomenico. “We want to modernize it a little bit and make it something that’s more aesthetically pleasing that kids are going to look forward to coming, because it’s nice and they want to be in a good atmosphere.”

The fundraiser itself originated from a group of Bonners that needed money for a service trip to Philadelphia, and is now one of the marquee fundraisers for the program.

“[Students] decided to continue this fundraiser, but they have decided to each year pick a different organization where students are serving to donate the money there,” said Tharp. “Last year it was Bowlby Library, the year before that WWJD after school program, and then this year they chose Open Door.”