Loyola giving foundation assistance
By Jamie Anfenson-Comeau
The Myra Bordelon Burson Foundation is expecting a boost in advancing its mission now that a group of Loyola students have taken the non-profit organization under their wing.
The Foundation was founded two years ago by president Benjamin Burson, Myra Burson’s son, with the goal of “empowering and educating the elderly and adult disabled community.”
Professor Valerie Andrews’ senior seminar class for public relations, took up the task of running a promotional campaign for the Foundation through Uptown Communications, a student-run public relations agency.
“Every semester, this course works with a non-profit organization to create and execute on some level a public relations campaign,” Andrew said, adding that the goal is to raise the visibility of the organization while providing the students with real-world experience.
To that end, the Loyola public relations students came to Eunice last week to speak with Burson, conduct focus groups and hand out surveys to better determine the needs of the elderly and adult disabled community and how best to get the word out to people.
“It’s exciting to have them come in and do all this work,” Burson said. “ We’re really lucky to have them come out here.”
The students are still analyzing the results of their research and hoping to collect more data, but Burson said they’ve already uncovered some surprising facts.
“I didn’t understand how scared people were of trying to make sense of Medicare,” Burson said, adding that Medicare awareness needs to be a priority for the Foundation.
Personal safety is also a major concern for the elderly and adult disabled in this community, Burson said.
After the students have had a chance to finish collecting and analyzing the data, they’ll develop a public relations campaign to promote the organization, as well as finding ways for the Foundation to enhance and expand on its mission.
“We did an initial project before we got into class to look at where exactly the Foundation is at, what they’ve been doing, and what can we do to improve that,” Loyola senior Jacqueline Tabbah said.
“We want the Foundation to grow, to become a well-known organization not just in Eunice but maybe in Louisiana and potentially the United States. So we’re hoping that our work will kick-start the Foundation and kick it to new heights.”