Students passing through the War Memorial Student Union Breezeway stopped by City Sampler to meet local businesses and organizations. Sarah Hess/The Lion's Roar

One of the many activities offered to students during Welcome Week was the City Sampler tabling event.

Local businesses and organizations set up tables in the War Memorial Student Union Breezeway to promote their products. Many local businesses such as Connie’s Impressions Inc., GNC and MXM Health participated in this Welcome Week activity. The purpose of the event was for students to see what all the community has to offer outside of campus. One of the organizations that participated in the City Sampler was the Fuller Center. The Fuller Center is a store that is part of a worldwide housing ministry that uses volunteers to build and repair houses for low income, elderly and disabled people. The local store was created by university alumna Tamara Danel whose philanthropic work focuses on the Livingston and Tangipahoa Parish areas and is currently helping with flood recovery. Danel explains why her organization decided to sign up for the City Sampler.

 “We’re looking for more volunteers,” said Danel. “We’re also educating students about our store because it’s an affordable place for students to shop.”

 Danel also explains why the City Sampler was a successful event for their organization to participate in. 

“It’s been very successful, ironically we’ve had a lot of students from Nepal stop by and visit us and want to volunteer,” said Danel. “Nepal has one of the oldest Fuller Centers in the world, so we send volunteers yearly to Nepal to build houses there. So, it’s been really cool to connect with students from Nepal here at Southeastern.”

Many students enjoyed all the information and freebies given out at the event, including communication senior Carnisha Tassin who describes how she found out about the event.

“I just so happened to walk through the union and I saw tables and people giving away free stuff, and I was like ‘Oh, snap, what’s going on today?’” said Tassin.

Tassin took the City Sampler event as an opportunity to discover new businesses in the Hammond area.

“I like it because it tells you about businesses that you don’t know are in Hammond because even though Hammond is a small place, they still have businesses that you’d never know about,” said Tassin. “So, like I just found out about a hair salon. I never knew about that business, so this is a good way to get students familiar with the businesses and organizations on campus.”

Whether it was information on a business or a free sample given out, the City Sampler event had something to offer every student.