A service project for one Simpson theme house has yielded double rewards. The money residents have earned will benefit some campus organizations and may help budgets for next year.

Every year each academic theme house is given a budget of $2,000 to use towards an academic or philanthropic purpose.

“Theme houses are responsible for doing a campus-wide program each year,” said Laurie Dienberg-Hoppe, assistant director of residence life.

The members of the Women in Science house have used the money to attend conferences and others have used the money to do such things as bringing a guitarist to campus, for example.

Money that is left over from the year is returned to the college to be used for the following year’s budget. Theme houses cannot keep any money because it is Simpson’s budgeted money that allows each house to complete such projects.

“That’s how all program money works. It’s like most student organizations,” said Dienberg-Hoppe.

Theme house seven, “the Sneaker Pimps,” have made the most of their community service time as they worked on the clean-up crew at the Allianz Golf Tournament in Des Moines. The money that the group would have earned will be used to sponsor campus events and benefit student organizations.

“We are going to donate part of it to Breakfast Club,” said senior Mike Johnson.

Johnson and the other nine students in the house will use some of the money to sponsor a dinner at their house.

“During May Term we are going to have Pfeiffer serve dinner over here,” Johnson said.

Money allotted for next year’s theme house participants have not yet been set.

“We are not sure when the budget will come out. It has been pretty crazy this year,” said Dienberg-Hoppe.

The members of theme house seven will also leave their mark on the campus in a physical way.

“With the rest of the money we want to get a tree to plant on campus in our names. The rest of it will get put into CAB,” Johnson said.

The money that members of theme house seven will spend on the campus has no ties to the budgeting done by the members of Student Development. All money raised by students is left to their discretion in how the money is allocated.

“It was never Simpson’s money to begin with,” said Dienberg-Hoppe.