RPS organize memorial food drive

Administrative secretaries at Residential Programs and Services have organized a food drive to aid the family of a RPS employee who died at Collins Residence Hall.\nMissy Godsey and Rita Moss, who are part of the Administrative Affairs Activity Committee, started the drive, which began Monday and continues through Saturday. \nThe food collected will go to the family of RPS employee John Fluke, 45, who died at Collins Center Oct. 12.\n"So many people approached me asking if there was anything they could do for Karen (Fluke's wife)," said Godsey. "We thought a food drive would be the way to go."\nDrop-off boxes are located at the center desk of every residence hall, at the RPS office, at the IU Bookstore, parking operations and several other locations across campus.\nStudents and faculty are invited to donate non-perishable food items or money at any of these locations.\nGodsey and Moss made their first run to empty the boxes Friday. At the RPS office alone, $105 has already been collected. \n"The response has been overwhelming," Godsey said. "This just shows that we have a lot of people who care out there, students included."\nFluke began working for RPS in 1978 -- when it was still called Halls of Residence -- as a food service worker. In 1984, Fluke began working with maintenance on a truck crew, then in 1989 he worked as an air-conditioner specialist In 2000, Fluke became Collins Center's maintenance man, the first person responsible for residence halls maintenance issues -- everything from installing air conditioners in students' rooms to repairing tables in Edmonson Dining Hall.\nMany employees at RPS counted Fluke among their close friends, and the RPS family was deeply saddened by his death.\n"I do believe, especially office, its like one big family," Moss said. "When anything happens to one of our members we feel that we have to do something."\nFluke's wife, Karen, is also an employee of IU, working in a laundry facility. This is yet another reason RPS employees have decided to reach out.\n"I feel so proud to work for a university this size and still have that family feeling," Moss said. "The food is just coming in everyday. There isn't one person I've spoken to who hasn't reached out to help."\nKaren feels that the University family has supported their family throughout her husband's time at IU.\n"I don't know anybody who didn't like him when they met him or knew him," she told the IDS in October. "There will be someone in every dorm who knows him"