Elon student, parent team to raise funds for Namibian AIDS work

Junior Katie Franck was half a world away from campus last spring with her parents in Saudi Arabia. That didn’t stop her from signing up for Global Impact of HIV/AIDS, a course taught by Tom Arcaro, professor of sociology and director of Project Pericles at Elon.

Katie, a Class of 2007 Periclean Scholar at Elon, took the course online and was so impacted by it that she and her mother, Tricia Franck, made a decision to do more to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the African nation of Namibia. Tricia Franck, a member of the women’s international friendship network Beta Sigma Phi, approached members of the organization’s chapter in Saudi Arabia. The chapter, Preceptor Alpha, holds a large bazaar and fundraising raffle each fall with the profits benefiting educational programs or other service opportunities. The Preceptor Alpha chapter designated all profits from this year’s bazaar and raffle for the Orphans’ Emergency Fund in Namibia.

“The women of Beta Sigma Phi admire the work that is being carried out by the Orpahns’ Emergency Fund and the Periclean Scholars Class in Namibia,” said Tricia Franck. “We wanted to show our support.”