Students support Rosemary

Always with a positive attitude and a smile on her face, Rosemary Sprague has been working at Sodexo as an employee for eight years.  Over this time she has enjoyed swiping cards and making students smile every day. But Rosemary was recently diagnosed with cancer and students ran a fundraiser to raise money for her treatment.

"Cadet Colonel Lanz worked out with her staff Cadet Corl and Cadet Jardis to come up with it after consulting the commandant staff," said Sean Fredrick a senior political science major from Derry, N.H

Many fundraisers have been done in the past to raise money for people in the local community or school faculty with medical conditions  to help them pay for their treatment.

"We knew from when Jordan Delina was regimental commander they did something for a girl in town with a similar situation," said Alison Lanz, a 22-year-old criminal justice major from East Greenbush, N.Y.

"If we can do anything for her, this is the least we can do, and just give back to her what she has given to us," Lanz said.

Cadets came together and saw the need to help Rosemary out with her treatment. According to Sprague, her treatment costs thousands of dollars and the money that cadets raised helped her out with many of her expenses at home.

"Everyone from the Command staff was tossing around the idea when we came back from spring break, and we knew that Rosemary had cancer and we wanted to do something about that," said Ross Jardis, a 22-year-old senior business management major from Exeter, N.H.

"The Corps of Cadets will do something worthwhile especially to benefit someone in the Norwich community or the local community. It comes to show how important the Corps of Cadets is at Norwich University," Fredrick said.

Rosemary has had such a positive influence on students over the years and many students consider her to be part of the Norwich family. This fundraiser has greatly benefited her.

"The only reason why she works here is because of us," Lanz said.
When students presented the 8,000 check to Rosemary, it was very emotional for everyone when they saw Rosemary's reaction.

"I had the check and brought it down to her in the Wise Campus Center, and we gave her the check, and she started crying. It was really emotional," said Lanz.
Rosemary said she did not expect this large sum of money from students..

"I was shocked in two days that these guys made something nice for me. I couldn't believe they cared about me that much," she said.