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Nona Keeler

Staff Writer

St. Patrick's Day was celebrated the way the Irish do, with dancing a jig

or two, while helping a good cause.The Fourth Annual Shamrock Soiree was held on Friday,

March 15, from 6:30 p.m. until 11 p.m.ln the ballroom at the Great Northern Hotel. Heels were kicked up to Triple Cross.Flors d'oeuvres,a no host bar, as well as live and silent auc­tions were enjoyed by the approximately 150 people In attendance.

The over $6,000 raised (not Including ticket sales) from this Engineers Without Borders USA Carroll College Student Chapter (EWB) major fundraising event will help support their service projects. The event Is entirely organized and put on by the Carroll student members of EWB. Most of the live auc­tion Items were services provided by Carroll students ranging from fly fishing to house cleaning to various types of lessons.

"The Shamrock Soiree Is one of our major funding sources.The money raised from this student run event funds a large part of what we do,"said John Scharf, Carroll's Robert Nix Professor of Engineering and EWB faculty advisor. "Also contributing to our ability to work on these projects Is the fact that the professional mentors and faculty pay for their own travel, and the students each contribute $250 toward theirs."

Carroll students Sam Cotnolr, a junior health science major from Frenchtown, Mont.; Chris Darlow, a senior environmental science major from Helena;Tanner Grlmstad, a junior majoring In civic engineering from Missoula and president of EWB; Kevin Mc- Namee, a sophomore biology major with Spanish and chemistry minors from Spokane, Wash.; Seth McVey, a junior civil engineering major from Albuquerque, N.M.; Elizabeth Morris, a freshman biology and Spanish major from Spokane, Wash.; Cody Noffslnger,a freshman engineering science - mechanics major from Flamllton, Mont.; Daniela Rosales, a freshmen biology, Spanish and French major from Flelena; and Ryan Wall, a junior civil engineering major from Flelena, traveled to Mexico to work on their Santa Marla del Mexlcano Orphanage project over spring break.This Is EWB's second project at the orphanage.They Installed sprinklers In two of the farm fields with a goal of enabling them to raise spice crops that can eventually be sold for profit allowing the orphanage to send more of its residents to college.

Grlmstad wrote a dally blog during the spring break trip for anyone interested In tracking the progress of their project.The link Is on the Car- roll website (http://www.carroll.edu/students).The blog was updated at the end of each day and Included a short excerpt summarizing the work as well as photos.

Kent Barnes, professional mentor, and Scharf accompanied the stu­dents. Barnes Is the director of the Bridge Bureau for the Department of Transportation^ Carroll alum and adjunct professor of engineering.

"Since membership to Carroll's EWB is not restricted to only students in the engineering program, the projects that we work on provide excellent opportunities to acquire real hands-on experience in the areas of engi­neering, biology, Spanish and many others,"said Grimstad."This spring break trip was my fourth. It not only provides great leadership experience and looks good on a resume, but allows us to make a real difference to those who need it the most.The experience has taught me to appreciate

the things that I tend to take for granted, like clean water."

In May, the club plans to send a group of students, professional men­tors, and faculty to the Flelena Diocese mission school near Santo Tomas, Guatemala, to continue their seismic reinforcement of the school building as well as the design and implementation of a reliable system to provide clean water to the school.

Engineers Without Borders - USA is an international, non-profit organi­zation dedicated to improving the quality of life In developing countries through sustainable engineering projects.

The premier sponsors of this year's Shamrock Soiree were Morrison- Malerle,lnc.and Morrison-Maierle Systems Corp. Willis and Nancy Wet- stein, Great West Engineering and Robert Peccla and Associates are some of the other sponsors.