Sometimes when coordinating service you may find yourself in a rut. You’ve offered the same events and your getting the same students participating each and every time. You need a way to engage more students or better engage the students that are already participating. But where do you start?
Through observing different athletic departments use of Helper Helper we have noticed a trend of “big events” being a way to increase participation across athletic departments. These “Big Events” can be a great way to introduce student-athletes new to service in hopes to hook them into wanting to participate more! And they can also be a way for you to place the responsibility of event planning and coordinating on your veteran servers.
We were able to get some insight into one of these big events by talking with Manhattan Colleges Assistant Athletic Director, William Aloia.
1) Tell me about the big event you do with St. Baldricks?
Every year we solicit for our student-athletes to raise funds to get their head shaved. We typically have ~3-5 student-athletes shave their heads and ~3-5 students/community members shave their heads. We ‘auction’ off our head coaches and administrators to get pied by our student-athletes. We had a swimming/diving student-athlete raise over $2,200.00 alone to support him shaving his head this year!
2) Do students help in the planning of the event?
The event is run entirely through our SAAC group. They are involved in the tabling/marketing of the event and the logistics day of (accepting funds, running a bake sale, emceeing, etc.). In 2017 we were unable to secure our local barber and our student-athletes ended up assisting in shaving heads!
3) Are there smaller events that lead up to this event?
Each student will raise funds privately through their friends and family members. Day of, we have the ‘auction’ and bake sale with all proceeds benefiting Saint Baldrick’s.
4) Do student-athletes from all sports get involved?
We have every team in attendance at the event (student-athletes/coaches/administrators) and they participate in some way shape or form.
5) Do your SA feel a connection to the St. Baldrick’s community?
Our student-athletes do feel a connection to the St. Baldrick’s community as some of them have been directly or indirectly impacting by the awful diseases the organization seeks to end.
Chris Woodhouse – Men’s Track and Field – “I have shaved my head twice for St Baldricks at Manhattan College, and I loved every second. Our event brings the community together and allows students to have a good time raising money for a great cause!”
6) Anything else worth noting about this event/relationship?
Every year we try to bring a child battling cancer to the event to speak about their fight and the importance of St. Baldrick’s. Last year we had a young man and his family attend – they’ve since come to a few basketball games to support the Jaspers!
To read more about the Manhattan College St. Baldrick’s events use the links below.
2017
2018
Helper Helper can be a great resource when planning and executing these events. Not only can you use the technology to spread the word to recruit and schedule volunteers, you can also use the reporting side to track funds raised. Allowing you to track all of the event details in one place for a comprehensive data report of what was done.
To record funds raised in Helper Helper follow these steps:
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Create the opportunity
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Allow people to sign up like you normally would.
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Enter the number of funds each person (or each) team raised.
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This will show in the downloadable reports under the opportunities tab.