College of
Business
Administration
College of
Business
Administration
GROUP MEMBERS:Tom HernandezEXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Gretchen Mudersbach
Joe SosaThe objective of our project was to volunteer our time by helping and working with children who are economically disadvantaged. We then decided to help sponsor an Easter Egg hunt with the Linda Vista Recreation Center, in an effort to benefit children. Since the center already had plans to organize a Spring Egg Hunt (a politically correct name for an Easter Egg Hunt), we were able to shift our attention to organizing the acquisition of donations rather than incorporating the idea into the center’s existing list of events. We started out by contacting area businesses for specific items such as food, candy and various gifts to be given out during the March 29th event. We contacted various businesses by phone and in person until we obtained the core items that would make the event a minimal success, and bonus items that would make the event special. With our group effort, we were able to far exceed our goal.
We started our quests for donations on February 27. 1997 and secured all donations by March 15, 1997. In a little over 16 days were able to obtain 1 sixteen person astro jump from Jumpin Jack, 8 medium size Easter baskets with grass filling, 8 medium size stuffed bunnies and 450 balloons from Michaels Arts and Crafts, 450 hot dogs and buns from Pairtree Catering, 1 San Diego Padres gift pack (various items), candy donated from U.S. Military Sales, 2 family passes to Childrens Museum of San Diego, fruit punch, napkins, cups and plastic candy bags from McDonalds, $20 from Vons Grocery, $75 from Mossy Nissan, $100 from Laidlaw Corp, and $200 from Kearny Mesa Toyota.
The event took place on Saturday March 29, 1997 from the hours of 10:00am to 1:00pm. Since we volunteered to help, our day started at 7:30 with basic set up duties and later progressed to passing out candy bags, blowing up balloons, hanging banners, monitoring the astro jump, and passing out hot dogs.
When we decided to pick the Linda Vista Recreation Center as our project, we made an effort to consider the many different theories and frameworks relevant to our choice. As indicated by the utilitarian Jeremy Bentham, morality is part of "choosing an action that has the best overall consequences for everyone concerned and providing the greatest good for the greatest amount of people." Our decision to volunteer our time to the children of Linda Vista, provided the greatest amount of good to four different groups. It benefited the 450 children of Linda Vista by allowing them to receive various food and gift items free of charge. The LVRC benefited from our volunteer efforts in acquiring the many donations. Our group also benefited by obtaining personal satisfaction from helping others. Lastly, the various donators received advertising from the banner that was posted at the event.
We also acted according to Emanuel Kant's notion that we "act according to the maxim that will become a universal law." According to Kant, it is our duty and obligation as moral people to help and to treat everyone the same. Kant also stated that all people have an “intrinsic” value and we kept this in mind as we treated the children as we would treat any other person in our community.
We incorporated Social Contract Theory which says that "morality arises when people are brought to accept the rules that are necessary for social living." By helping out the community, we did what was necessary to promote social living in today's society. We sponsored the center because of our 'voice of duty' as suggested by Rousseau who says "we should set aside our self-centered inclinations in order to promote the welfare of everyone."
By recognizing and taking seriously the moral worth of relationships though our caring for the children, we considered the theory of Rational accounts of moral reasoning.
Our project also exemplified our virtuous traits of character in our ability to act out of rightness and obligation. We acted benevolently by our act of goodness for the children and the Linda Vista Recreation center. We showed our compassion by treating the children no differently than other children who may be less disadvantaged. We expressed our virtuous traits of generosity, thoughtfulness, and friendliness by volunteering our time for the spring egg hunt. In context from Aristotles way of defining the good of man', We acted from our soul to do what is good in conformity to virtues.
Return to Professor Dunn's home page.