WeLoveMI, the recently formed COVID-19 (coronavirus) relief campaign created by the Mercer Island community fund (MICF) and the city’s chamber of commerce, recently received two awards for its work on the island.

The Mercer Island High School (MIHS) PTSA selected the campaign for its Outstanding Community Partner of the Year award. The MIHS PTSA also selected the MIHS International Entrepreneurship class that helped lead the campaign for an Outstanding Program Award.

“We’ve been blown over by the talent, creativity, drive and passion of each and every student in the MIHS International Entrepreneurship class,” said Erin Krawiec in a recent press release from WeLoveMI. “It was great to see them putting everything they’ve learned as business students into action with this campaign.”

“What makes their efforts even more commendable is that they were able to accomplish all that they did while their world was being turned upside down by a pandemic,” added Jen McLellan, who teaches the entrepreneurship class, in the press release. They were all forced into their homes, made to adapt to a whole new way of learning, and robbed of traditional senior festivities such as prom, senior parties, and more. But they turned lemons into lemonade. During these challenging and scary times, these students found a way to rally behind our community and work to help make sure Mercer Island remains a place where we all love to live, even after COVID-19 has wreaked its havoc.”

The team members had originally planned to run a walk-a-thon for their spring project. They had to rethink things when shelter-in-place orders banned large gatherings.

According to the WeLoveMI press release, the opportunity to work on the campaign was presented to the class by McLellan. McLellan, who has served on the board of the Mercer Island Community Fund (MICF) for several years, was on the initial brainstorming calls with other MICF board members and the chamber’s executive director.

Once the idea of launching the fundraising campaign took hold, McLellan saw the opportunity to get her class involved and pitched the idea to them, to which students were receptive.

To date, the WeLoveMI campaign has helped raise $117,625 for Mercer Island’s small businesses.

For more information about WeLoveMI, go to its website.