Lighthouse Club fights human trafficking with fundraising, awareness events

A successful Buy Flowers, Not Girls event sold daisies, carnations, and roses with funds raised to help fight human trafficking.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Salo

By Elizabeth Salo

This article is featured in the February print edition of the Sower newspaper. 

Concordia’s Lighthouse Club continues to raise money to help fight human trafficking in the United States and abroad, with a successful Buy Flowers, Not Girls event this month and additional activities planned for the rest of the semester.

“I haven’t heard the totals…but we had very few flowers left over,” said President Brynn Holtmeier. “We had a lot of pre-sales, more than we did the year previous, and we had a lot of people come up to the table super excited to buy flowers. It went really, really well.”

Club member Ramona Ojeda said there was some concern about how the annual event would turn out.

“There is always a lot of nervousness when we prepare for this event because each year brings something new,” said Ojeda. “This is my second year helping with the event, and I’m so happy because it turned out to be even better than we expected!”

Ojeda said the club appreciates the many students who stopped by and helped raise awareness about human trafficking.

The flowers were purchased from Costco and Sam’s Club. “We have ordered from these stores before and have never had any issues. Of course, we try and order ahead of time to make sure they are delivered on time,” Ojeda said.

Lighthouse Club already has had several activities this year, including an informational documentary night, and a Coffee with Congress Event.

“Last semester, we had an informational documentary night talking about some of the exploitation and human trafficking with children specifically that goes on in the U.S.,” said Holtmeier. “And then we had a Coffee with Congress event encouraging students to reach out to their representatives in Congress to push for legislation that would protect children and other victims of human trafficking.”

The club’s annual Dressember campaign, which included 30 participants, and the Remedy Drive concert also were successful.

Holtmeier said the club raised more than $12,000 in December.

Lighthouse Club is planning a prayer night, an awareness event and their annual Threads thrift sale for the remainder of the semester.

“We are working on a prayer night event for this semester, another awareness opportunity, maybe with a speaker this time, and we will have our Threads thrift sale in the spring, after Easter probably,” said Holtmeier. “[Students should] keep an eye out for bins for donating clothes after spring break.”

Holtmeier said people can donate clothing and buy clothes, with the proceeds going to the International Justice Mission.