Students create pop-up selfie museum to raise money for Alzheimer’s Association

Four college students built their own selfie museum in the Paul Conn Student Union on Friday, April 1. All proceeds from the pop-up museum went toward the Alzheimer’s Association as part of The Longest Day.

Lee students Emma Chase, a junior math major with an actuarial science emphasis, and Abbey Swanner, a double major in math and computer science, led the event as the cause is an issue close to their hearts.

“The Alzheimer’s Association is something we both really feel passionate about because we’ve had grandparents with Alzheimers,” said Chase. “So we reached out to the Longest Day fundraiser, and the next thing we knew, we were on the board.”

Chase and Swanner worked with their friends Josie Moore and Alex Boggs to create a variety of selfie museum backdrops with different themes including “Starry Nights,” “Bubblegum State of Mind,” “Garden of Eden” and “Purple Rain.”

“We already like taking pictures together for fun, so we already had a bunch of the props at home,” said Swanner. “We ordered the backdrops in different colors on Amazon, and we kind of just took the colors and added our props on top of them.”

Chase and Swanner first had the idea for the pop-up museum after visiting a selfie museum over the summer.

“We traveled to Panama City and found this selfie museum, and we kind of went in ironically,” said Chase. “Despite the fact that we really thought we were gonna hate it, it ended up being a lot of fun. So that’s what inspired doing the selfie museum for our fundraiser for the Longest Day.”

The Longest Day recruits a variety of teams around the United States who individually host fundraisers. Typically, those fundraisers will be on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, under the slogan “the day with the most light is the day we fight.”

As part of the Longest Day, individuals from across the world will “fight the darkness of Alzheimer's through a fundraising activity of their choice.”

Summer solstice falls on June 21, when most college students are not on campus, so Boggs, Chase, Moore and Swanner worked to implement their Longest Day fundraiser idea during the academic year. The students reached out to Alex Staup, director of student engagement at Lee University, with their idea right before spring break.

“We are so proud of students who pursue their passions, especially when it’s towards such a worthy cause such as the fight against Alzheimer’s through the Longest Day,” said Staup. “Emma and Abbey brought an idea, and through their hard work and creativity, they offered a unique opportunity for awareness and engagement through the selfie museum. Our goal was to support them in making their vision a reality in any way we could.”

The pop-up selfie museum occurred from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Paul Conn Student Union on one of Lee University’s busiest days of the year, Lee Day. After paying a $5 entry fee, students could enjoy the museum and take unlimited photos and even purchase a t-shirt. The students raised $75 for the Alzheimer’s Association at their event.

“We’re thankful for what we got,” said Chase. “We’re hoping to do this at least once a semester until we graduate next May. Once we’ve done it, people will know more about it, and we’ll change up the backgrounds each time. There will hopefully be another one in the future.”

For more information about the Longest Day fundraiser, visit the official website.

For future selfie museum updates and to see behind-the-scenes work from Boggs, Chase, Moore and Swanner, check out their Instagram page @selfiemuseum.alz.