Just before their Christmas holiday, a group of student members of Judson College’s Tri-Beta Club took gifts to patients at the Davita Marion-Perry Dialysis Center.
On December 6, eleven Judson students visited the Dialysis Center to sing Christmas carols and distribute 30 gift bags to local patients. Each bag contained toiletries, socks, blankets, and puzzle books and writing materials. “The gifts were bought with money already present in the Tri-Beta account,” said senior Olivia Breimhorst, Tri-Beta president. Breimhorst and fellow senior Maggie Ingram, vice president, did the shopping and packing of the gift bags.
“The students used funds [for the gift bags] raised by the club in earlier projects, plus our Dr. Wilson matched the funds with a personal gift,” said Breimhorst. Judson’s Nursing Club provided scarves and gloves for the bags.
“Judson’s Tri-Beta Club — Beta Beta Beta, National Biological Honor Society — has a long history of health-related community service projects,” Dr. Thomas Wilson, professor of biology said. Past projects have included: Walking for Cancer and Diabetes; working with Perry County Health Department’s blood pressure workshops; checking vision with UAB’s Optometry Department; organizing Healthy Heart projects, and others, according to Dr. Wilson.
The Tri-Beta Club was established in 1976 under Dr. Wilson’s leadership. “It is a society for science students, particularly undergraduates, dedicated to improving the understanding and appreciation of biological study and extending boundaries of human knowledge through scientific research,” Wilson said. Students must maintain a 3.0 overall GPA and a 3.0 science GPA; they must be biology majors or minors to qualify for membership. Presently, Judson has 61 biology majors, with 21 minors, making biology the largest major at the college.
Faculty sponsors of Tri-Beta are Dr. Thomas Wilson and Dr. Kris McConnell.
PHOTO: Judson College Tri-Beta Club members with their gift bags for local dialysis patients.