On Tuesday, March 11, three students from SUNY Brockport’s Museum Studies Internship Program held a bake sale in the Seymour Union to raise funds for the recently damaged Morgan Manning house.
SUNY Brockport has had a long-standing working relationship with the Morgan Manning House representatives in order to provide students with the internship credits they need to graduate.
SUNY Brockport Senior Em Galante is one of the students enrolled in the Morgan Manning internship program.
“We are all museum studies and public history minors and when you have the minor you have to do two internships to complete the requirements,” Galante said. “The school has partnered with the Morgan Manning house for years at this point, to give students who go to Brockport but can’t make it out of the area an opportunity to fulfill that requirement and do their internship here.”
The interns, including History student Jessica Resides, saw an opportunity to help after the Morgan Manning house caught fire.
“We were left with not being able to go inside the house and we couldn’t figure out what to do, so, we decided to put together a fundraiser,” Resides said. “The fundraiser we originally thought of doing was a full Gala, but because it was going to take too long to do something of that size, we decided to break it down to three smaller events. One is today, the next one is on April 15, which will be a blind date with a book sale, and then the other one is on May 8, it’s a Mother’s Day flower sale. Each one of these is helping to restore three of the portraits lost in the fire.”
Two of the portraits being restored commemorate Susan Morgan and her daughter Sara Morgan-Manning, after a fire in September 1964 resulted in her death.
Resides recognized the importance of these three portraits and the need to restore them.
“The portraits were very special to the house because they are of the people who were part of the family,” Resides said. “We don’t have the means and opportunity to restore furniture and the bigger items, but we have the opportunity to restore something smaller that has a more personal connection, so that’s what we chose to do.”
Galante used multiple methods to inform fellow students of what the interns are doing and get the message out.
“I am the Anthropology Club president so I’ve been using my pull to really bring people in,” Galante said. “I’ve been posting on our social media, and we’ve been sending a picture of our flyer to all the department chairs and having them post it. It’s being advertised in the Daily Eagle and on the TVs that are in every building.”
Resides said the students wanted their table to stand out from the others and have something students don’t see every day to catch some attention and garner interest from those passing by.
The next fundraising event hosted by the students for the Morgan Manning House will be on April 15, 2025, and will feature a blind date with a book sale.
