By Jen Cardone | The Duquesne Duke
Aiming high, Circle K has set a new goal for this year’s I Got SNAGGED 4 Jimmy V fundraiser.
The group is currently at $5,100, only $400 short of their goal by the end of Saturday’s event, according to Cirlce K Jimmy V chair Sarah Sprauer.
Jimmy V chair Emily Croll said this year’s fundraiser is different than previous years due to an added Jimmy V committee and a significant change in membership. The group has grown from 12 members to 133.
Laura Brickett, Circle K President, said that strong leaders on the executive board helped with the active membership and participation.
“In the leadership positions, we have inspired a lot of members to want to be involved—they’re the ones who want to keep coming back at the end of the day,” Brickett said. “It’s the members who make it awesome. There isn’t a required amount of time required to be a part of [Circle K]. [The members] themselves are great leaders by the way they join the committees—spaces are always full at end of meetings.”
Sprauer said the Jimmy V committee helped by performing tasks such as collecting can donations outside local sporting events, making posters and mailing donation letters.
Croll said that because there was no hockey lockout and the Pirates made it to the playoffs, there were more opportunities to collect donations. They began canning earlier this year.
“If it was Sarah and I canning, we never would have raised the money that we did,” she said.
Sprauer said they also allow people to sign their names to a sheet that says, ‘I Got SNAGGED by Jimmy V,’ for $1. They will continue selling them in the Union until Friday.
An estimated $1,500 was donated by local businesses and people who are large supporters of the V Foundation, Sprauer said.
“In order to get where we are now, we started to can at the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins games earlier,” she said. “[In] many ways, [the money] just sort of happened from many people being very generous and wanting to help the cause.”
Saturday’s fourth annual I Got SNAGGED for Jimmy V event will cost $7 per person and will be held in the auxiliary gym above the A.J. Palumbo Center from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
