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Dateline: 9/14/2007

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

GU Collaborates for Community Service Sept. 15

Two groups of Gonzaga University students will work with business professionals to serve the Spokane community Saturday, Sept. 15.

From 8 a.m. to noon, members of Beta Alpha Psi, Gonzaga alumni and professionals from Klynveld Peat Marwick and Goerdeler (accounting firm KPMG) will expand the Vinegar Flats Garden at 1702 W. 27 th Ave., to help serve St. Margaret’s Shelter for women and children. KPMG has offered to pay for the supplies necessary for the expansion, which will double the garden’s size. Also Saturday morning, Alpha Kappa Psi (AKP) members will weed, plant and clean with professionals from Washington Mutual Bank (WaMu) at Twin Owls Garden, 6912 Random Point Ln. Neither event is open to the public.

KPMG, a professional firm that provides audit, tax and advisory services, aims to attract the top entry-level professionals in auditing and accounting. KPMG views Gonzaga as a developer of qualified employees. Strong market demand, coupled with the growth of Gonzaga’s School of Business Administration, makes relationships between GU faculty, students and alumni with companies like KMPG and WaMu more important than ever. KMPG and WaMu aim to foster strong relationships with GU through service.

KPMG developed an idea to plan and sponsor a fall community service project in Spokane, in which GU students and faculty spend time with KPMG professionals, networking and serving the community. The project, named Community Matters, is organized by Gonzaga students. The project was initially designed by five Gonzaga student-interns at the KPMG office in Seattle in the summer of 2006.

The first Community Matters event was held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center in Spokane. Some 20 GU students and six KPMG employees painted and restored the Center’s landscaping. This year’s Community Matters day of service coupled with the WaMu event will bring more than 50 people together through service.

For more information, contact Todd Dunfield, assistant director of Gonzaga’s Center for Community Action and Service Learning, at (509) 323-6396. For information on Community Matters, contact BAP president Christian Ellis at bap@gonzaga.edu. To learn more about the Twin Owls Garden project, contact AKP president Chris Semke at csemke@gonzaga.edu