Every Tuesday and Thursday, freshmen Megan Cohen and Suzanne Turry stop by O-House for their morning omelets. Megan and Suzanne instantly became good friends with Polly during first semester when they would go three times a week for breakfast. Polly is described as the woman whose “omelets and scrambled eggs brighten everyone’s day”. Recently, Polly has been missing work a bit, and explained to the girls that the doctors have found a tumor in her stomach, and she will have to get it removed surgically. Polly works two jobs and has three kids.
Megan says, “We decided that we wanted to give her a nice gift card or something for Christmas because she’s so nice and works so much but we just never got around to it. Then when we got back from winter break and [we] asked how her break was she said she'd been sick and in the hospital and [she] told us she was going to need surgery to remove a tumor in her stomach in February.” Megan and Suzanne decided to create a “Go Fund Me” page in hopes of raising money to help with Polly’s medical expenses, groceries and household needs. The page description includes “She has a very special place in the Bulldawg nation and in our hearts”.
The campaign was first launched on January 19th, and two days later reached $1,169. The girls originally planned to give Polly a $50 gift card, but after the outpour of support the girls decided to make their goal on Go Fund Me to $1000. Megan explains, “We literally sat down with after she made our omelets on Tuesday and just decided to make a go fund me page and set the original goal to $250 dollars. We got such good response and sent it to all our family, UGA friends, and sorority and fraternity Group Mes and probably 5 hours later we raised the goal to $500, then $750 and finally to $1000!!!”
Suzanne discusses why she wanted to give back to Polly, ““Every morning I wake up dreading to go to my 9 am chemistry class. I sit through it for an hour and a half knowing right after this is will get to see Polly and get to eat the delicious omelets she makes. Not only does she make my day so much brighter, she always makes a point of asking me about myself and filling me in about her life. It's a great friendship and everyone has been so supportive.”
Polly was overwhelmed with joy when she saw how much money the girls raised for her. Megan thanks everyone for all of the support, “We feel so lucky to have such amazing friends who shared the donation page and donated!! It's incredible how many people know and love Polly and it's so cool to be able to give back to her. It really required such little effort on our part and we are just so overwhelmed by how many people gave money!”
Watch the video below of Megan and Suzanne telling Polly about how much they have raised!
I hope this video inspires you to give back to those in your community who are not as fortunate!! Megan shares, “She knows our omelet orders by heart too we don't even have to tell her. She knows Suzanne gets a two egg omelet with spinach tomatoes green peppers and bacon with cheddar cheese and she knows that I get an egg white omelet w tomatoes mushrooms green peppers and turkey. She's an angel!” Thank you to Polly for all that you do for our UGA community, and great work, Megan and Suzanne! We’re so lucky to have such incredible members in our Bulldawg family!