SNHU students raise money for charity with chocolate event

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From left,  Madear’s Owner Robb Curry, SNHU Professor Dr. Lowell C. Matthews and Manchester Resident Elizabeth Spindell at the Chocolate Experience. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

HOOKSETT, NH – What was the Chocolate Experience? Several dozen members of the public that made it to Southern New Hampshire University’s Hospitality Building earlier this week found out, and a local charity is better off for their discovery.

The event was organized by students of Dr. Lowell C. Matthews, a professor in SNHU’s School of Business.

This marks the seventh year Matthews’ class has put on a charity event as part of Matthew’s Human Resources Management class, but the first time they decided to put on a chocolate-themed event.

At first, all 15 students in the class chose to participate in organizing the event for their grade instead of a more traditional syllabus with classwork and exams, but Matthews says several students opted out of organizing the event once realizing how much work was involved in putting on the event.

Junior Rachel McCully of Sandown was one of the students that stuck with it. For her, this was actually easier than her job working with a wedding-planning company, but she thinks the lessons learned through this process will help her at some point in her career.

“This has definitely helped working with people and having a lot of different tasks and doing a lot of different things and making sure we didn’t miss any details because there were a lot of parts,” she said.

The event included over half-a-dozen chocolate items from restauranteurs across New England, such as Robb Curry of Madear’s in Manchester.

Curry brought gluten-free chocolate pudding with a sour cherry gelée and a flourless chocolate cayenne tart, both of which are available at Madear’s.

“I love the turnout and who doesn’t love chocolate,” said Curry. “The students did a great job reaching out and making sure everything was in place and doing their due diligence when it came to marketing.”

All proceeds from the event went to Dreamcatchers and Dreamcatchers 2.0, a charity that helps intellectually disabled people that have aged out of the Dreamcatchers New Hampshire organization.

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.