Milly the pig wagged her tail during Saturday’s Dixie State university football half-time show after a smooch by a faculty member.
Professor of Biology Del William Smith was nominated out of five other faculty members to kiss a pig in the fundraiser “Kiss the Animal.” The other contenders for the fundraiser were Samuel Tobler, Christina Duncan, Ross Decker, and Travis Seegmiller. The “Kiss the Animal” fundraiser was done to help 12 students at DSU to intern at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab over the 2016 fall break, October 13 — 15.
Each student must pay $70 to attend the internship, which is why this fundraiser was held to help the students along. A total of $221 was donated.
Students attending the alternative fall and spring breaks are usually looking for humanitarian opportunities to add to their resumes as well as expressing an interest in the theme of their trip, Hansen said.
Ashley Hansen, a junior biology major from Ogden and alternative breaks coordinator for DSU said in an email: “The purposes of these alternative breaks are to create active citizens by providing our students with volunteer opportunities on local, regional, national and international levels that will encourage experiential learning, social awareness and community engagement.”
The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is a no-kill animal sanctuary for homeless animals, and it’s the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary for companion animals.
Hansen said she hopes to put on multiple fall and spring break activities to help students intern in different areas to later put on their resumes. She said she hopes to see more service opportunities in these events and is excited to start this new program at DSU.
Smith said he was grateful to help and for the fundraiser to help students with their goals and dreams.
“I think the pig wanted to kiss me more than I wanted to kiss her,” Smith said.
Even though Smith wasn’t as excited to kiss the pig, he said anything to help students earn some money for something they want to do.
Hansen and DSU Student Association would like to do more events like this in the future in hope to help students serve more and get closer as a community.
