There are many ways for people to support the Logger community. They can attend athletic events, buy spirit wear, attend the many lectures and events hosted on campus or donate money to a number of causes during the Logger Day Challenge. These events bring the community together for the cause of making the University a better place.
“Logger Day Challenge is Puget Sound’s annual day of giving and what that is is a 24-hour time period that gives students, alumni, parents, faculty staff, anybody or friends at Puget Sound a chance to give back and support financial aid or a variety of other awesome causes,” Assistant Director of Annual Giving Emily Welbourn said.
This year the event took place on March 26. Many signs could be seen around campus and a table collecting donations was set up outside of Diversions Cafe.
“The day was centered around three groups of funds – the Puget Sound Fund (which carries six specific designations – financial aid, faculty support, student life, academic program, campus enrichment and area of greatest need), identity-based scholarships and athletics (overall and specific teams),” Assistant Director of Annual Giving Emily Holloway wrote in an email. This event not only brings the community together but also helps many members continue and improve their Puget Sound experience.
“The identity-based scholarships received an anonymous trustee challenge, spurred by the donor’s interest in furthering the work of the students who established the scholarships,” Holloway wrote.
For students it must be very encouraging to see their hard work produce more results besides a good G.P.A. In addition, this support towards minority groups will allow for the community to become more diverse, bringing new perspectives and talents to the University.
This year, “We had an anonymous trustee give $5,000 match for three of our identity-based scholarships so that was a great talking point to be able to contact donors, or people who had done to endowed scholarships in the past, or even people who have never donated to endowed scholarships before,” Welbourn said.
This type of exposure makes people see that others are getting involved in supporting the community. It encourages other possible donors to participate because they are able to see that their money is going to a good cause.
This year the Logger Day Challenge had some new developments. “This, the second year, included more volunteer engagement and a visible campus presence,” Holloway wrote. More publicity meant that more people knew of this event and thought about making a contribution.
Furthermore, “This is our first year using this new special website. … For 24 hours people can log in, make their donation to any athletics team, some of our identity-based scholarships or the Puget Sound Fund. They can do that online or many people have been mailing gifts in advance, or we are collecting gifts here at the table,” Welbourn said. There are many ways the community and other people that want to be involved can make a contribution.
“Athletic teams collected funds for their operating budgets. Coaches identified areas where their teams might allocate resources and presented those as potential reasons to support the team during Logger Day Challenge,” Holloway wrote.
Many athletic teams got their own exposure about their collection campaigns by recording amusing publicity videos that they sent out to alumni, family and friends to get them to support their sport. After all, “Logger Day Challenge is also about Logger pride,” Holloway said.
This event could potentially become a tradition that brings people from different backgrounds and interests together for the common goal of supporting one another.
