Student Spotlight: Emily Perdue

by Brooke Buchanan

Business major Emily Perdue is heading up the Comfort Cases Donation Drive.

Perdue became aware of Comfort Cases last year when she watched an Upworthy video on Facebook. “The founder’s, Rob Chasteen Scheer, story really inspired me of what he went through and how he started Comfort Cases,” Perdue said.

In June, Comfort Cases was on “The Ellen Show.” Seeing Scheer on the show reminded Perdue of the Upworthy video she had watched in the past. “I reached out to Comfort Cases, and I told them a little bit about Parkersburg, WV. They told me I could have a donation drive here and a packing party,” Perdue said.

The story being Comfort Cases was personal to Perdue. “My mom is a social worker, so I’ve heard stories about children being taken out of their homes,” Perdue said.

The Comfort Case Donation Drive is Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at WVU Parkersburg in the College Activities Center. Comfort Case founder, Rob Chasteen Scheer, will be speaking via Skype. A Comfort Case Representative will be speaking at the drive as well, in addition to Children’s Home Society of WV, KVC WV and Blueprints.

Perdue’s goal is to fill 244 cases for every child in the three agencies to receive a case. These cases will go out to eight counties in the Mid Ohio Valley: Wood, Wirt, Ritchie, Pleasants, Roane, Jackson, Calhoun and Kanawha. However, if the donation drive collects more than 244 cases worth of items, Perdue said she has the opportunity to help up to 500 children.

Perdue hopes to continue this drive annually. “It really just depends on how this one goes, which I hope it is a success, but I think it’s something that could be needed more often than not.”

In the future, Perdue would like to foster. “Being a mom right now and a fulltime college student, I am pretty busy,” Perdue said.

Perdue would like to find a job in the future where she helps people. “I’ve always volunteered. I volunteered at Camden Clark for four years, and I did the YMCA Leadership Program, so I’ve always worked with my community,” Perdue said. “Here recently, I had been so busy I hadn’t got to do any volunteer work, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test what I’ve learned in school.”

Photo Credit: The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reporter Jeff Baughan