Monday, May 7, 2018

(News 12 at 5:30)

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – It's not often you see students pitching ideas in the commission chamber.

"We wanted them to say 'Yes, let's put it together. When's the date?' so that was great. It was awesome to hear them say that," said AU student Madison Layton.

They're talking about a brand new event, helping with homelessness, and bring more people downtown. It started in Marsha Loda's business class at Augusta University. She wanted her students to plan an event for the school, but they had bigger plans.

"I said, ‘Well who do you want to do an event for?’ and they said, ‘downtown’,” said Marsha Loda, an associate professor of Marketing and Business at AU.

They came up with Bridging the Gap. It’s a dinner party planned on the 5th Street Bridge. Madison Layton helped come up with the plans.

“We basically just sat around the table one day at class and just spat ideas at each other, and said what's going to improve Augusta, and what benefit are we going to chose to improve Augusta and bring more people downtown?”

They planned down to the details with an end goal to raise thousands for groups that help with homelessness. They want the dinner at the bridge because there are plans to turn it into a pedestrian bridge.

Their classroom project turned into a real city plan. After commissioners heard the idea they put their own departments to work, picking up where students left off.

“I am just so happy for the students for them to really see that stuff that they work on can truly make a difference,” said Loda.

The students involved are graduating, but they say they still want to help out. Recreation and Parks is now heading it up.

The plan is to have this in place for next year, but maybe in the Fall when there's less chance of getting rained out.