Planning festival for Hurricane Harvey victims

By Anna Toth

 

At the beginning of the semester, Resident Assistant Peter Rogers had the idea for a carnival driven by donations that would help Hurricane Harvey victims. Now, after bringing it forward to the Campus Activities Board (CAB), that idea is becoming a reality.

The fundraising festival will be held on Thursday Oct. 12 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Driven by the ideas from Rogers and residence life, CAB has recruited other student organizations like Greek Life chapters, Viking Expeditions and more to participate in fundraising efforts.

Brittany Nevison, campus traditions chair of CAB and event organizer for the fundraising festival, took some time to talk about the event and the organizations different roles in it.

“CAB is essentially carrying everything out and getting things organized,” Nevison said.

Students wanting to participate in the fun will have to bring a monetary donation or canned good donations. Different donation amounts equate to a different amount of tickets, which can be spent on food and activities within the festival.

One dollar equals one ticket, while two canned goods equal to one ticket. Students are welcome to donate other items as well, such as water bottles and personal care items, but the exact ticket number for those items has not been figured out yet.

“The main goal is to just get students involved and donating,” Nevison said.

Viking Expeditions will be storing physical donation items in their office until they can be shipped down to Texas, while monetary donations will be going to local charities in the area. While it was briefly discussed to extend donations to other areas in the United States affected by hurricanes, there was not enough time to organize it.

All participating organizations will be running their own booths and activities at the fundraising festival, and one of the Greek Life organizations is expected to bring a dunk tank. Every booth will have a donation area where students can donate to participate in the activities.

“The more students donate, the more tickets they can get for things like food, face painting, rides and other fun things,” Amanda Pacanovsky, president of Viking Expeditions said.

Viking Expeditions has a place in their office where students can drop off canned good, personal care items and water bottles for Hurricane Harvey relief. But Pacanovsky explains that the effort hasn’t gained a lot of traction.

She’s hopeful that the fundraising event on Oct. 12 will get a lot more student participation and attention.

“I’m hoping that since it’s going to be a fun event with lots of things to do, students will be inspired to participate and donate.”