Brantmeyer, Rowe to begin service projects

When Carly Brantmeyer heard her name announced as the 2009 Homecoming queen Saturday, she said it felt like a dream.

“It just felt really surreal,” said the senior photojournalism major from Charlotte. “I’m still trying to process it. It was really exciting.”

Homecoming king Desmond Rowe, who received 39 percent of the 4,288 votes cast, said he felt relieved.

“It was one of those successful moments where everything falls into place,” he said.

Rowe and Brantmeyer, who will serve as king and queen of UNC for the next year, will carry out service projects they designed with the $1,000 they will receive from Carolina Athletic Association. Both hope to use the money to develop long-term community projects.

Brantmeyer, who received 27 percent of 4,504 votes, will expand a project called PhotoTEACH, which provides weekly photography classes to students from low-income and underprivileged families. She started the project while studying abroad in Ghana and brought it to Durham last semester.

With the award, she said she hopes to further expand the program and open it to the UNC community. She said photography empowers students, providing them with confidence and the ability to work in teams.

“Photography classes translate into life lessons,” she said. “It teaches them that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to, and they don’t have to be defined by their circumstances.”

She said she will feature the students’ work in an exhibit so the UNC community can realize the impact of the program.

“I hope to show in a visible and tangible way how their vote made a difference,” Brantmeyer said.

She said the project can continue after she graduates in May.

Rowe said he will use the money to launch Caring and Active Relief through Athletics and Community, a program for the parents and siblings of hospital patients.

He said the program will include activities such as taking families to dinner, laser tag, bowling, ice skating or UNC sporting events.

The project will incorporate student groups to help with basic needs such as transportation. He has been working to get support from local businesses to provide gift certificates and additional funding. The project is also a way for the University to promote itself, he said.

Rowe said he was inspired by the clubs he has been involved with at UNC and is trying to build support within these groups as well. He is a member of Dance Marathon and Carolina Kickoff and is co-chairman of Carolina Fever.

“It just made sense to me,” he said. “It’s something we hadn’t been doing and hadn’t thought of yet.”

Rowe and Brantmeyer both said that as king and queen, they will be a face for the University.

“That’s a great responsibility of any elected student, to represent the University in the best possible manner,” Rowe said.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.