by Jordan Foley, Student Public Relations Writer
Seeing an opportunity to meet some needs in Dayton’s homeless community spurred Cedarville University’s Integrated Business Core (IBC) students to make an impact. The student business organization, through creating and selling its own merchandise, donated $6,300 to Target Dayton Ministries on Saturday, March 30.
Each year, business and marketing students connect their classroom instruction with an entrepreneurial mindset and manufacture products they market and sell. This year’s IBC group, made up of sophomore and junior business students, created and sold product lines featuring jewelry, notebooks, board games and apparel.
The funds, according to Target Dayton’s website, will help provide hot meals, shoes, clothing, Christmas gifts, hygiene products and Bibles to Dayton’s homeless population. According to a news story in the Dayton Daily News in March 2023, there are 790 homeless residents, all of whom were unsheltered, living in Dayton. This number has increased 58%, with only 51 unsheltered, since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The need is great in Dayton to help people in need, so we are very appreciative to the Cedarville University students for seeing this need and contributing to serving the homeless community through Target Dayton,” said Cindi Stevens, director of Target Dayton Ministries.
Target Dayton Ministries is a nonprofit organization located in the inner city of Dayton, Ohio. Its mission is to spiritually and physically serve Dayton’s poor and homeless communities through providing meals and activity programs. Every week, the organization holds a church service and serves warm meals open to the community.
After volunteering at Target Dayton Ministries, the IBC students felt a collective need to donate to this organization.
“Volunteering with Target Dayton Ministries was incredible, and it was amazing to see the ways they are ministering to the Dayton community through music, meals and spreading the Gospel message” said Chayton Gearhart, junior business management major at Cedarville University. “It was a great environment to volunteer in and was a blessing to our lives and the people of Dayton.”
The IBC is a yearlong program that pairs classroom learning with practical business experience. In addition to the learning value, the students are engaged in generating funds so they can help a nonprofit ministry or organization through a low-risk environment.
This year’s products, according to Dr. Andrew Wonders, assistant dean of the undergraduate program in the Robert W. Plaster School of Business at Cedarville, had the most success of any IBC program in recent years. “Our IBC students this year generated more sales from their products than any other IBC group before them,” said Wonders. “Their success is a testament to their dedication to the program and commitment to helping others in a real, tangible way. Helping the staff at Target Dayton serve the homeless community in Dayton has left an indelible mark on the lives of our IBC students. They took education to a more personal, compassionate level.”