By Ryan Horan
Contributing Writer
St. Bonaventure alumni are looking to help ease the stress of Christmas shopping this year for their follow Bonnies with the Alumni Gift Guide.
The Alumni Gift Guide is an online listing of St. Bonaventure alumni that make great gifts for the Bonnie in your life. There is a wide range of products in the gift guide, from flower arrangements by Miss Fancy Plants, a business run by Brittney Summers, ’09, to a professional Santa from Snow Belt Santa by John Cittadino, ’85. There are also many unique products not seen in everyday stores, such as LGBT-friendly greeting cards and a company that makes professional quality maps. Various books, such as “Spirit and Life” by Dan Horan, ’05, and “Running with Buffalo” by Michael Farrel, ’00, are also available to purchase.
Freshman journalism and mass communication major David Bryant said the Alumni Gift Guide was interesting and created a good balance in the relationship between students and alumni.
“We use (the alumni) for jobs and they use us for advertising all of their things,” Bryant said. “It is a good thing, the idea of working together and forming this connection.”
Freshman journalism and mass communication major Riley Eike first heard about the gift guide on the Notice Board.
“I think it’s a nice idea that they can put what they are doing now on the board and we can support them,” Eike said. “It’s a good networking system. We can help them out now and they can help us out when we start putting out our own products.”
Eike said she might even use it to do some holiday shopping.
“I may buy something that was listed on the gift guide, depending on what it was though,” she said.
Lucia Scotty, St. Bonaventure’s coordinator of electronic communications, commented on the accessibility of the new service.
“The gift guide will be on our website year-round,” Scotty said. “We will be adding more alumni and their products as we find out about them, so you should check back often to see what’s new.”
While some catalogs or guides charge vendors to advertise their products, Scotty said the Gift Guide does not.
“This is a free service to our alumni – there is no charge to be included in the guide,” she said. “Customers should contact the alums directly to purchase their products or if they have any questions about their products. We wanted to do this for our amazing and talented alumni and let them share their talents with the Bona community.”
If you are ever bored or perhaps just curious, take a look at the Alumni Gift Guide yourself. It is always being updated with new items and services. It can be found at www.sbu.edu/alumnigiftguide.
