One of N.C. State’s newest student organizations, 4 the World N.C. State Chapter, hosted a wine tasting for its fundraising event Friday.
The event was held at Uncorked, a wine bar and restaurant located in North Raleigh, and tastings were offered for $5 per person.
The organization sold raffle tickets for gourmet wine and cheese baskets.
Uncorked donated 100 percent of the proceeds to 4 the World.
4 the World is a nonprofit organization that works with volunteers to help suppress global issues in needy communities, primarily health and education.
Robert Keith Froom, the founder of 4 the World, started the N.C. State chapter.
“I started the N.C. State Chapter with help from a young lady looking to do an internship,” Froom said. “That was her project, to get the chapter started.”
After working on the project for a year, there was officially a chapter at N.C. State by the beginning of the 2012 academic year. The organization had presidents, co-presidents, vice-presidents and secretaries but Froom said it was not very well known on campus during its first year.
According to Froom, that changed at the 2013 N.C. State Campus Crawl when more than 100 members signed up for the organization.
“It’s a really popular organization when students see the pictures and hear about all the things we do,” Froom said.
Froom, who just got back from spending a month in Guatemala and Belize, said 4 the World works both in the U.S. and abroad, with the foreign efforts taking place in Belize, Guatemala, Africa and Philippines.
Teams of volunteers go on location to do health or education projects, and sometimes volunteers work to build schools and deliver school supplies, other times they put electricity in schools that don’t have power.
“Sometimes when our teams go to these communities we’re the closet things to medical people,” Froom said. “It’s really amazing.”
Shea Kerkhoff Vessa is the education director of 4 the World. She began working for the organization two years ago, and said that she was really attracted by the model, which is to collaborate with communities, assess the situation and empower them to be self-sustainable.
According to Vessa, there are three opportunities that 4 the World provides N.C. State students. The first is the opportunity to do community and international service.
“Our mission is to collaborate with communities wherever they may be,” Vessa said. “When north Raleigh had tornados, we went and helped provide first aid and food.
The second is that it provides the opportunity for internships. Students can gain experience in marketing, non-profit management, global medicine or international education. The third opportunity is for students to take alternative spring break trips. In the future, fall break trips will be offered as well.”
According to Froom, in past trips, the volunteers have been able to have a little fun as well—such as getting to climb the Mayan Ruins.
“After the week you have a blast and it’s really neat,” Froom said. “Most of our volunteers, over the ten years that I’ve been doing this, stay involved in with 4 the World because they think it’s a really cool organization, even after they graduate.”
Some of the event attendees were donors and supporters. They help contribute funding because they want to see kids go to school and succeed with their education.
“When you’re surrounded with all these wonderful people it keeps you young at heart,” Froom said.
4 the World will have its 10-year anniversary in January, 2014. For more information regarding 4 the World, go to Facebook or its website: http://4theworld.org.