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Liz Kay
Hello and welcome to the Providence College podcast. I'm your host, Liz Kaye, and I'm joined by producer Chris Judge of the Class of 2005 here on the Providence College podcast, we bring you interesting stories from the Friar family. This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with Lindsay Arruda, a biology and music double major in the class of 2024, about some of her recent accomplishments.

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Liz Kay
Arruda was crowned Miss Fall River in November. She also received a Congressional Award Gold Medal this summer. After several years of charitable work and achieving fitness and professional development goals as well as travel. Lindsay, we're so excited to talk with you today.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Thank you for having me.

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Liz Kay
Now, congratulations on your medal. The process for you, the process for earning it is pretty extensive. How have you been working on these goals?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
It's been a few years. I think it's started. I started applying back in 2016, but all really began in 2013 when I started my charitable foundation with my brother. We were supposed to go to the Boston Marathon. We go every single year. It's kind of a family event for us because my parents met and they fell in love on Boylston Street to Boston, originally a second home for us, and we always went near the finish line because I've seen the runners cross the line, smile on their faces.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And then one year we happened to oversleep. And that was the year the bombs went off. And we were just watching the TV horrified, thinking we were supposed to be there. That's our city. And we try to think of some way we could help. And that's when my brother and I came up with the original Boston Strong to work on wristbands and sold them on eBay for $5.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And we weren't expecting much from it, but within a few minutes people started buying them across the nation and across the world, and we're able to raise over $10,000 for the victims. And that kind of sparked the charity bug in us. And then we found in our nonprofit that we say a strong foundation. And that's when we started different charitable campaigns like Ah We See You campaign, which I focused the Congressional Award on that one is collecting new and gentlemen use eyeglasses for those in need across the world we tell people from Puerto Rico, Greece, Syria, all over and also Haiti.

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Liz Kay
And Lindsey, how did you get how did you get connected with eyeglasses? How did you see that as a place where there was an opportunity to help people?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Well, my mother, an optometrist and everyone, our family wears glasses. So we noticed from personal experience how debilitating it can be not having glasses. And I remember watching the news with my brother and we were seeing the Syrian refugees that were escaping to Greece and many of them didn't have time to worry about their glasses. They were lost or destroyed when they were trying to just flee for their lives and just find safety.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And it was a need that was overlooked. So we were trying to help in that way because I know it can affect everyday life school and it's just something that they need but don't often get.

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Liz Kay
Wow. But charity is just one of the four components for this gold medal. What else did you have to do in order to to earn it?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
There's also a personal fitness section so that when I did some cycling on a bike, which was a lot of fun and also I did dance and show choir in high school, I was a part of show choir and that combined singing and dancing. It's kind of like Glee, but not really. And actually a lot of fun. And I was hoping to build up my endurance for singing, and it was a great way to work on my music and also make so many great friends that way, too.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And another aspect of it, there's two left. One of them is the personal development. So for that one, I chose to be more confident when I'm performing, kind of get over the nerves for that and for doing that. I joined a rock band, a classic rock band, and I was lead singer in that. And also I just took each performance as it was.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I started a performance ritual and now I'm double majoring in music and biology and I don't have that performance nerves anymore. Just enjoy every moment on stage.

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Liz Kay
Attorney And so did you start the when you, when did you get started with the classic rock band? How did you get started on that?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
That started, I want to say, either five or six years ago I did guitar lessons from fourth grade and my guitar instructor, he would put on recitals and recitals for Raymond Music. And I remember one year I was playing guitar for a girl who was singing a Taylor Swift song, and I was like, I can do that. I can sing.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I've always wanted to sing. Was never something I thought I could do until that moment. And so I started taking voice lessons in eighth grade, and then he asked me if I want to be a part of this band he was starting and all kind of blossomed from there. We do a lot of 80 songs some white snakes, some queen, so it's just a lot of fun.

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Liz Kay
That sounds like a great variety of it's When did you you must have been 13 or 14 years old when you first started working on this. Wow. And there was one final component for the gold medal.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Yes. So that one is an expedition or a trip of some kind. And for that, I planned a trip in 2018, I believe it was, to Greece. We went to Athens and Crete. And my goal for that was to connect with my heritage in the land of my grandparents who are from there because they passed away before I was born.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
So it's really a way to connect with them. And I planned the entire trip by myself. I had some knowledge from a hospitality and tourism course I took in high school, but it was very different planning. Like everything and knowing was an actual trip you're going on. I made sure to go to stops or our families were there to have big family dinners with everyone, which is so fantastic.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And also going to music shops where I got to buy a Greek liquor and I was just so wonderful. When you play the music of my grandparents and my ancestors.

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Liz Kay
Now this whole process, it's you've you've been working on it for so long. How did you first get started? How did you learn about this opportunity to earn the Congressional Award?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
When we started our foundation, I didn't know anything about it at all. And then I saw something I think was on Instagram one day about it, because I have an Instagram page, and I thought it was very interesting that, Oh, this is cool. And then I read more into it and about how it's one person's vulnerable. So helping your community as well.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And next thing, I was very interested in.

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Liz Kay
So you had been working on this. This was these were such this has been such a long term goal for you, but you have been also working on something a little more recently. Tell us about competing to be Miss Fall River and your experience this summer with the Miss Massachusetts pageant.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
So I became Miss Fall River last November, and it's my first year in the Miss America organization. I was Miss Music Town and Miss Congeniality in high school. And that's where you are that the music department for the high school and she there's a lot of fun but I never expected to continue something like that and then I heard about the Miss Fall River Organization and I get to go out into the community but also continue to perform at events.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And I was born in Fall River and I'm raised right next door in Somerset, so I couldn't think of anything better than representing my home. And I compete in November. I wasn't expecting much, and then I was just shocked to win the title that year. And so they have all the local title winners, Mama River and the other ones.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
They compete at Miss Massachusetts in July. So from November to July, I had time to prepare for Miss Massachusetts, but the most important part to me was going out into the community and meeting the people of Fall River and all the wonderful things the city has to offer. And I miss Massachusetts. I sang I Dreamed a Dream from Ms..

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And My Voice teacher at P.S. here, Elizabeth Heath. She was very generous to help me with it. And it was a lot of it was just really great having her help and her expertize. And I was able to get top ten for my first year, so it was a lot of fun. I met so many amazing people to It's excellent.

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Liz Kay
Now I just have to salute you for getting so much accomplished, you know? Lindsey, how do you balance it all? How do you keep track of everything and manage your time?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I've always been very organized, but you can ask my roommates. I have a weekly planner. I plan out everything for each day and I just make sure to never commit to something. I can't put my 100% in everything I do. I do because I love it and something I truly want to do. And I think if you love doing it, you'll always make time for it.

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Liz Kay
This episode of the PC podcast will be shared on the first day of classes. What are you most excited for this upcoming year?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I'm excited to meet new people, see my friends again and just experience everything that PC has to offer. All the wonderful events, late night madness and getting tickets for that. So that should be fun.

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Liz Kay
And tell us about your biology and your music. Double Major. How did you decide on your majors?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I've always loved sciences and ever since I was little, I wanted to do something with medicine. So biology is very obvious through and with music. That's why I say, like, biology feeds my heart, music feeds my soul. So combining the two is something that I love about PC, how you're able to do that and for music. I've always loved singing Dancing with the Rock Band and the teachers at PC have really been so accommodating and great and making it so I'm able to do both majors and they're both able to have equal attention.

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Liz Kay
So thinking of all the courses you've taken at PC, which have been your favorite so far? I don't know if you we need to let you choose between you pick one from each major or you could just say.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Oh, there's so many. Well, for the biology part, it's tied. I love my cellular and molecular genetics course because it is so interesting learning about different diseases. And we learned about actually COVID vaccine and why that works. So that was really interesting thing that applies to what we're dealing with right now in the world. And I also really love my psychology course.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
My interest is psych. I just thought that was so cool. And about the different like things about our brain, the neurotransmitters, that's really interesting to me. And I think from the music side, I really loved my piano course, my piano one course with Michael Krieger, who also is the accompanist for the chorus and the various performances we have.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
He was just such a fun teacher and he really let you go at your own pace and do songs that you wanted to do. And I think that was so much fun and I have to give a shout out to a sieve. I know some people don't like it, but I actually really like the things he did this year.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I That was really interesting. We write some books that I wouldn't have otherwise read in my free time, so that was really helpful.

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Liz Kay
What are some of those books that, you know, again, you probably would not have picked them off a shelf given the choice, but you appreciate having read. Now.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
We read this graphic novel called Mouse, and it's about World War Two. This man who wrote Art Spiegelman, he wrote about his father who is in the Holocaust, and he survived and his wife survived. And actually, that story and while the story about his survival is also a story of a father and a son and generational trauma, and I'm not really one for graphic novels, but it was really interesting seeing the visuals and the words as well.

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Liz Kay
And what are some things you enjoy doing in your free time at PC? Not that you have a lot between the two majors and your foundation.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I'm a part of the PC chorus. I'm on the keyboard this year. I'm a secretary and I just love being able to sing with all my friends to various concerts and just a lot of fun.

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Liz Kay
And what are you thinking as you look ahead to your future? What are you hoping to do after college?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
I'm hoping to do something in medicine, so probably go to med school after college. And I know music and charity work will always be a part of my life, whether it's giving voice lessons or singing with my band and not always be there. And because of PC and the music department, I know that I'll be confident when I do in the future with my music and my biology.

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Liz Kay
And then just thinking about back to your charitable work, Lindsay, I'm curious. You know, you were you were 12 years old when you got started with the with the Boston Strong wristbands. How did you get that started? You know, it sounds like you had a lot of help from your family and friends.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Yeah, it was really a grassroots effort. And they said before we were expecting much. We thought, oh, this is just something we can do to help. And I remember we were thinking of things to do. We thought of a shirt at first, but then we were like, That could be too expensive. You can always wear a shirt all the time.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And then we thought, bracelets are something easy to wear, they're cheaper so everyone can buy them. And it really just shows your support and easy way. And we went on a website to design them and we got I think it was yeah or something like 300 or 400 at once. So we were like all going to have so many extra wristbands just giving away for free and then people just kept buying them.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And my community of Somerset was really so great in spreading the word and also buying them themselves. We had to put we got to put boxes up and social media was really, really, really important and spreading the word out. So we had like a Facebook page. I don't think I knew what Facebook was at the time, but my mom and dad helped us make a Facebook.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And yeah, it's just everyone coming together. I remember going to the post office because we had so many orders, so my grandparents and my parents would drive us so like, Oh, you guys together, you're just this really is a really great experience.

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Liz Kay
I'm just trying to picture what it must have been like when you were so young. Just like you must spend your afternoons, just like filling envelopes. Like.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And the post office, they actually told us ways we could mail it, so it's cheaper and more money could go to the charity. And we got a postcard, and then we would tape the wristband down. We'd write, thank you, nice little message on each band and we'd put it in an envelope and send it that way because it'd be far enough is something like, yeah, but it worked out really well and it was nice to have a personal message, a personal thank you for everybody that we got to send the wristbands to.

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Liz Kay
How many first bands did you end up selling? Do you have a count?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Oh, I don't know. There are so many. I know the mass general. They actually bought 300 wristbands for their staff and the victims that were there that day. And we offered to donate them, but they wanted to buy them for the money could go to the one fund and so 300 went there at least a few thousand. Sure.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Yeah.

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Liz Kay
There were some and there were a couple of people who really helped you that kind of surprised you with their with their decision to support your campaign. Can you tell us about some of those folks.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
While we were really surprised to see some celebrities wearing our wristbands, President Obama at the time was wearing them on Air Force One, which is really cool. Joe Biden was wearing them. Aerosmith, Taylor Swift had them, which I thought was awesome as deal with fans. The land of the Red Sox. We won the World Series, had them on.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
So when they had the celebrations, you could see them wearing their Boston Strong wristbands. And also it meant more to us. We're seeing everyday people wearing them like a middle school science team, bought the bracelets and use them as a good luck charm, the one our survivor also wore, and that was kind of his motivation to keep going and to win the competition.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And also the victims, their families who saw it as a symbol of hope and healing.

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Liz Kay
It sounded like there were a number of just everyday people who just picked it up and ran with it. So, yeah, it's not like there were other people, kind of like ordinary everyday neighbors and people who started to sell them as well.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Yeah, it was actually it was kind of funny that one of my neighbors, she worked at Mass General. We didn't know it at the time, but she got one of the bracelets when they bought all of them. So that was kind of cool.

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Liz Kay
So. So how did your charitable organization evolve? It sounded like you and your brother continue to work on it even beyond kind of that initial that initial tragedy.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Well, we aim at helping those suffering from tragedies and natural disasters. And we watch the news every day so we don't go out looking for something. We just see if people can reach out to us or if we're just watching the news and something, strikes are like, oh, we can help that way. Like with the you campaign, we're watching the Syrian refugees fleeing and that's how we got the idea for that.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And we also helped a young cancer patient who discovered her love for art. He'll pay for medical supplies and also her art supplies. And now she's doing well and she's painting. So which is fantastic. And we just we just see things that need help and try do anything we can to help.

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Liz Kay
And how have you been able to continue that work during college with, you know, all the demands on your time?

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Well, it's really a partnership, so we both lean on each other a lot. My brother just graduated this year from like, university, and we really just see things we can do like our Ukraine strong wristbands, which we started to help the Ukrainians. That is kind of similar to the Boston Strong and how when we come home for like a weekend, we just mail a bunch of orders out and it's just and with the new campaign, we're also still getting shipments in.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
And we were actually able to reach over $300,000 worth of eyeglasses donated. So that was really great to be able to do that as well.

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Liz Kay
Well, Lindsey, it's been so wonderful chatting with you today. Thank you so much for joining us.

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Lindsey Arruda '24
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to.

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Liz Kay
Subscribe to the Providence College podcast in all the usual places, including iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify as well as your smart speaker. If you like what you hear, please review and share with others. Thanks for listening and go Friars.