By Casey Pigg

Just a few weeks before finals, Cooper Harrison and his fellow senior class committee, held the Tasting on the Square event at Revelry. This annual event included a silent auction with 22 baskets and tastings of wine, beer, and hard liquor.

“It was basically a tasting event,” Harrison said. “It used to be called Senior Wine and Cheese. We decided to have our own little twist and to have a bit of fun with it.”

This annual event has been a long-standing tradition of the senior class. However, while it is an enjoyable night, fun is not the main focus.

“The premise of it is our senior legacy gift,” Harrison said. “We have an account right now that we have our money thrown into. We have a couple of ideas, but can’t talk about it yet.”

Traditionally, the senior legacy gift has always been a way for the senior class to give back to the university. While the gift can’t be disclosed yet, Harrison made sure to emphasize the impact that planning such a gift has had on the committee.

“The senior legacy gift in itself is something that every senior class has to do. This is a great way for seniors to realize what philanthropy is and what giving back to your school and community are. It starts with this project,” Harrison said. “It’s a teaching moment for us to know how to give back to the school in a creative way.”

And this impact, Harrison hopes, is going to be large. The past few senior classes were unable to use their money to donate a gift, so the money has continued to sit in the account. However, this year might be different. While Harrison is not finished adding up all of the totals, he believes the count is close to $5,000 for this year. This was mainly due to the fact that almost everything for the event, including all 22 baskets for the silent auction, were donated by the university and businesses throughout the community.

“One thing I earned from this event is how willing the Quincy community itself is to help the university,” Ernest Baker, committee member, said. “The university has a really large financial impact on the businesses and they realize that. So, all in all, it wasn’t that hard at all to get these organizations to donate. People love QU and more specifically, they love their students.”

This love of the students was very apparent that night, as almost all of the tickets available to sell were sold. According to Harrison, everyone had a great time.

“I was really thankful for the feedback on how much fun people had,” Harrison said. “I even had some friends come back and say that that was one of their top five experiences at Quincy University.”

While the senior class committee had fun with everyone that attended, the reason why they hosted the event, to give back, was not far from their minds.

“The university has really made me into a leader that I did not foresee,” Baker said. “If you look at me now and if you look at me when I first walked through those doors, it is two completely different people. It’s crazy the track that God has for you and how, no matter what, it’s going to come to fruition. Honestly, I am who I am today because of my experiences, however they came, through QU.”