Partnership is the right blend
Three QUT graduates are brewing up a range of initiatives to give back to the university which provided them with fond memories along with their education.
The three directors of boutique coffee chain Merlo - Dean Merlo, Patrick Herd and Paul Roati - are all former QUT students and have worked in partnership with the university for several years, supporting a series of QUT’s key fundraising activities.These include annual appeal receptions, QUT Coffee Week, the Staff Giving Thank You morning tea, tea, alumni donor receptions and the River Fire dinner.
“I enjoyed my time at the Queensland Institute of Technology, as it was then known” said Mr Merlo. “And when I was here, education was free, so I feel a particular debt to the Law School. It’s all about giving something back.” Bar Merlo at Gardens Point is a far cry from the now-extinct student coffee lounge Mr Merlo once haunted on the ground floor of Y Block.
Quaffing a coffee during QUT Coffee Week (May 26 -30) helped disadvantaged students by raising cash for QUT Learning Potential Fund scholarships and bursaries. For every hot beverage sold at campus venues - Beadles, the Student Guild Bar, Bar Merlo and Dusk - $1 was donated by the cafe, and matched dollar for dollar by QUT. Trying their hand at the an of coffeemaking were guest boristos V-C Peter Coaldrakc and all five DVCs. The fund raised a total of $11,200.
