Move-in Day Mafia helps students in need as they enter Paul Quinn College
DALLAS - Saturday was move-in day for Paul Quinn College, and a national non-profit was there to help get students’ stuff into their rooms.
The Move-in Day Mafia got to campus at 10 a.m. and continued to help students until 7 p.m.
Paul Quinn is one of five historically Black colleges and universities to be visited by the Move-in Day Mafia.
College is stressful enough without having to worry about extra expenses students don’t have the money for.
The Move-in Day Mafia is helping students who need financial support.
Angel Taylor is thankful for the help.
"Knowing there’s good people out there willing to do good things for college students. I’m happy for that because not everybody knows that there’s people out here willing to help," Taylor said.
Taylor needed extra financial support after her family experienced a bout of homelessness.
That support includes lamps, bedding, fridges, and decor for dorm rooms.
"You’re not the only one that goes through this. Someone can relate to you. There’s someone out there willing and wanting to relate to you, willing and wanting to help you understand you don’t have to be alone," Taylor added.
Teej Mercer was inspired to start the non-profit after learning of a student’s struggle.
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"I met a young lady who had graduated from her HBCU. She told me when she aged out of foster care, her social worker drove her to campus, pulled up to the curb, let her unload what little she had, and just left her," recalled Mercer, founder of Move-in Day Mafia.
Mercer is working to change that for others.
The national non-profit delivers hundreds of donated items for dorm rooms of students who have aged out of the foster system, are facing financial hardship, or have zero estimated financial contribution.
"I just prayed, asked God to show me how I can help and Move-in Day Mafia was born," Mercer said.
The non-profit holds an interview process that involves providing a financial aid packet.
"It’s really important to us to choose students who either have limited support or no support because that’s what we’re there for, to become the mafia the family around them," Mercer said. "There’s always tears and screams and disbelief."
After acceptance into the mafia, Mercer gets to know their personality, so by the time they move in, they feel at home.
"I applied for Move-in Day Mafia because coming into college, it was just my family helping me. It was just us trying to get all the scholarship money I could to apply for college," Taylor said.
Taylor said Move-in Day Mafia does more than provide living essentials for incoming freshmen, including doubling as a family for all four years of college.
"It brings family, even though it’s not blood-related, it brings family to college when your family can’t be here," Taylor said.
The mafia is asking for donations. Click here for more information on the group and how to help.