BuckeyeThon 2009 Greek Life Packet Ohio State s Year-Long Philanthropy
INTRODUCTION Dear Fraternity/Sorority Presidents and Executive Boards, Welcome back! As you gear up for the beginning of the school year with many exciting events ahead I would like to tell you about a great philanthropy event. BuckeyeThon is a year-long fundraising organization that helps raise money for Nationwide Children s Hospital and Children s Miracle Network. Our mission is to raise funds that will provide research, treatment, equipment, and education for children in Ohio, who suffer from terminal illnesses, serious diseases, birth defects, and severe trauma. 100% of the funds we raise stay local. Throughout the year we put together many fundraising projects for registered dancers and for the entire campus. Our biggest fundraiser is our fourteen hour dance marathon that is held in the RPAC. The date is February 28th and we will be dancing our way into March. Several colleges across the nation have their own dance marathon. Now, if that doesn t get you motivated, think about all the other Big Ten schools that raise more money than us. For example Penn State University raised $5 Million last year. Even The University of Michigan raised $350,000. Many of these rival dance marathons are sponsored by Greek Life. Penn State THON is entirely run by IFC and PHA exemplary of what Greek Life can accomplish. Our goal this year is to raise $100,000 for Nationwide Children s Hospital and have 26 chapters represented at the dance, but we would love to raise even more with your help. Ohio State is consistently at the top of the Big Ten in all that we do. Our Dance Marathon should be too! Not only will this help the kids, but your chapter as well. BuckeyeThon gives all their dancers many opportunities to be involved with service, which will be explained in greater detail in this packet. Our biggest service is our 14 hour dance marathon, which is a great and fun way to get all your service hours in for a year. Your chapter will also receive Greek Week points determined by the amount of money each chapter raises as a whole. We hope that you will start this as a tradition in your chapter and commit to helping out your community. The participation of the Greek Community is vital to the success of this event. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Vince Frascello (.1) or Erin Ferlet (.1). For the Kids! Erin Ferlet and Vince Frascello Greek Liaison Co-Chairs
Getting Involved We have adjusted fundraising to make it easier for Greek Life to get involved. Greek Life will be competing within their councils for the BuckeyeThon Greek Award, Greek Week points and the recognition of the great service they are doing for the kids of Nationwide Children s Hospital. How to Register Your Chapter Chapters will form teams of at least 10 members. A larger team is encouraged and will help you raise more money and win those Greek Week points. As soon as the team is formed, they can register online at BuckeyeThon.osu.edu. All must select their chapter from the drop down menu. We ask that each team member gets at least 7 addresses from their address book of family and friends. The last page of the registration asks you to input these addresses for the Letter Writing Campaign Once chapters register their teams, they are free to raise money however they like.
Fundraising We are asking that each team raise at least 1500 dollars for BuckeyeThon. All teams that raise this amount will be recognized. Each Greek Team will invent their own fundraiser and donate the funds raised to BuckeyeThon. Teams can adapt current Fundraisers or create their own. The top three fundraising teams will be awarded Greek Week Points, so this is a great way to get a head start for Greek Week. Point Amounts are TBA After the fundraising is done, all registered dancers celebrate at our dance marathon on February 28, 2009 at 12 PM in the RPAC. (See BuckeyeThon Dance Marathon). Fundraising cannot happen at any events where alcohol is present. Fundraising Suggestions and Ideas Individuals can raise money in our planned fundraisers and the money will go toward the Greek team goal. The Nationwide Children s Hospital Letter Writing Campaign is the easiest fundraiser. Letters will be mailed to the addresses each team member submitts at registration. This is a very effective way to raise a lot of money, so the more addresses you include the better. (Deadline for Addresses is Jan 28th) Bowl-a-thon Canning before home football games, we meet at the Shuenion. Schott clean-up BuckeyeThon Dodgeball Tournament Bake Sales Cookout (sell food) Schott Cleanup, Litter Patrol, etc.
Fundraising Fundraising Suggestions and Ideas Door to Door canning Very successful; works great if a group of brothers or sisters go home for a weekend to one s neighborhood and ask for money; will need to have BuckeyeThon credentials (letterheads, money can, etc). This is also a great bonding experience. The BuckeyeThon Dodgeball Tournament On November 16th 2008, Chapters can show their dominance in their council by winning the BuckeyeThon Dodgeball Tournament. Teams can register up to two five person teams. The registration fee is $50. This will go straight to the team fund. Beat out the competition and be the best in your council! Registration will begin at 1:45 p.m. More information will be coming soon! Register for: Male Tournament Female Tournament If you need any help with fundraising, contact the Greek Liaisons or Sarah Baran (.18), the fundraising chair. Please inform us if you are planning a fundraiser and we will do what we can to spread the word!
BuckeyeThon 14 Hour Dance Marathon BuckeyeThon s 14 Hour Dance Marathon will be held on February 28th, 2009 from Noon til 2am. During the dance marathon, participants are asked to stay on their feet for the entire event. This may sound like a long time but time flies by with music provided by the very entertaining DJ s, the Dance Doctors. They play various genres of music, take requests and even make it interactive by teaching a few popular dance moves or line dances. Several university dance crews come to perform such as Styles Dance Group, 3D Urban Dance Team, and Dance Linx. The spirit remains alive when the cheerleaders, the band, and Brutus Buckeye stop by to cheer the dancers on. Varsity Athletes often like to visit to lead the dancers in stretching and a game halfway into the night. If participants need to take a break from dancing, a variety of video games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero will be available to enjoy. Basketball courts, ping pong tables, and other sporting activities will be open to dancers for use, and dancers will be able to take advantage of a study room. Morale Captains provide different types of games and activities to fit this year s Hollywood theme. Games will range from relays to childhood games. This is a way for the color teams to play together to try and earn points in order to earn the recognition of the top team of the night. Best of all, you can make friends, learn new dance moves, and all for a great cause!there will be a considerable amount of chapter fundraising teams that attend the event. This is a great way to collaborate with the Greek Community, get to know other fraternities and sororities, and meet potential new recruits, as that in BuckeyeThon 2008 over half of the attending dancers were freshmen. BuckeyeThon is also a great bonding experience.
Contact Information Greek Liaisons Vince Frascello Frascello.1@osu.edu Erin Ferlet ferlet.1@osu.edu Direction Jenny Swaim swaim.5@osu.edu Nidhi Lahoti lahoti.10@osu.edu Kristine Koehler Kohler.109@osu.edu Cristen Porter porter.406@osu.edu Helen Rotnem rotnem.2@osu.edu Sharrell Hassell - shassell@studentlife.osu.edu BuckeyeThon Office 116P in the Shuenion http://buckeyethon.osu.edu