This fall, students will have the chance to have a sandwich named after them at WesWings. Created by members of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), Wesleyan’s Jewish fraternity, the Sandwich of the Month Club will be hosting a monthly raffle with all proceeds donated to a local charity. The winner of the raffle will be able to create a sandwich from existing WesWings ingredients and name it after themselves. The sandwich will then be presented on the WesWings specials board for the next month.
The first raffle will start this Wednesday, Sept. 23 and continue through Friday. Tickets will be sold between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. outside of WesWings and Usdan, and will cost one dollar each. Tickets are cash only, and all proceeds will go to the Habitat for Humanity of Middlesex County.
The Sandwich of the Month Club was pioneered by two students on AEPi’s Philanthropy Committee, Nicholas Cousar ’16 and chair Aditya Gupta ’16, who wanted to do more to assist charities in the local community. They chose Habitat for Humanity of Middlesex County mainly because it is a local institution, and they hope to spread the fundraising profits to other local groups as the year progresses.
Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization committed to eliminating poverty housing by building affordable houses for low-income families.
“AEPi is committed to maintaining its image of it being more than just a party place,” Gupta said. “For instance, we have tied up with a soup kitchen on Main Street this semester to go there once a week and volunteer. We are also actively looking at brothers participating and raising campus awareness for the bone marrow drive happening in mid October. As the philanthropy chair this semester, I could not be more proud.”
With AEPi’s philanthropic goals in mind, Cousar said his inspiration came from a local diner.
“My favorite hometown diner has a sandwich honoring Larry David, the guy who created ‘Seinfeld,’” Cousar said. “He ate there all of one time, and I don’t think he even liked the place. But it got me thinking, you shouldn’t have to be famous to have a sandwich named after you. I feel like if you go to a place enough times, and they get to know you, that should be honored.”
With this idea, Cousar then went to Edward Thorndike, manager of WesWings, who partnered with AEPi to bring the idea to life. In the charitable spirit, WesWings will make the winning sandwich with any unique fusion of ingredients that the restaurant can offer.
Eventually Cousar hopes to have a final yearly sandwich raffle, where the winner would get their name immortalized for an entire year, but this has yet to be approved by WesWings.
Gupta believes that this novel fundraising effort will be effective because people have the opportunity to give back to the community as well as getting a chance to win a personalized prize.
“I think it makes it interactive for students as they will feel they are participating in a sort of game, while knowing that even if they don’t win, they have won in a bigger sense, by helping the needy,” Gupta said. “I believe every person should give back to the community, and what is more fun of a way of doing so then having an opportunity to have a sandwich named after you as one of the specials at WesWings?”
Vabuk Bahari ’19 said he was excited when he learned about the possibility of naming a sandwich after himself.
“Oh, I would name mine the Vabuk Bahari Explosion,” Bahari said. “It’d have Wings of Death tenders with blue cheese dressing, two fried eggs, lettuce, and onion on an Italian roll.”
On the other hand, Cousar said he would go with a more traditional sandwich of turkey, gouda, cucumber slices, and hot mustard on rye bread. Both Cousar and Gupta look forward to the first day of the raffle on Wednesday.
“It’s like 15 minutes of fame in sandwich form,” Cousar said.