SGA to provide funds for new horned frog
Student Government Association’s project to provide a new horned frog for the Fort Worth Zoo is a push to get students involved in the community.
By Emily Turner
Staff Reporter

The Student Government Association announced Tuesday night at its meeting that the organization has officially adopted a philanthropy for the first time.

SGA members will donate a real horned frog to the Fort Worth Zoo after the old one died in a fire this summer, following in the footsteps of their predecessors in 1984 who donated the steel horned frog that stands in the Reed-Sadler Mall, said Jose Luis Hernandez, a committee service director.

“It is our goal in 2002 to continue school traditions,” said Hernandez, a freshmen music and political science major. “We will go one step forward by adopting our very own horned frog.”

Hernandez said fund raising for a horned frog will be one of the first volunteer opportunities associated with the SGA’s philanthropy push to get students into the community. SGA is waiting for zoo officials to tell them the cost of the animal, but representatives are already planning to ask for donations at football and basketball games.

Hernandez said he will speak this week at student organization meetings, hoping to spread the word on the new philanthropy.

“I do not think students are aware of all of the opportunities out there,” he said.

Hernandez said the zoo philanthropy is SGA’s first step in coordinating service activities for students. Through the leadership of SGA members, the organization wants to encourage campus-wide community service, he said.

Katherine Villarreal, a freshmen political science major and Sherley Hall representative, said students can really make an impact in Fort Worth if they work together and participate in the opportunities SGA has to offer. She said the philanthropy will benefit the university as a whole instead of benefiting just one individual organization.

“I think volunteering gives me a chance to get back to reality and out of my bubble,” Villarreal said. “I don’t do it to benefit myself in any way. I do it because I might make a difference in someone’s life.”