University of Texas Permian Basin is set to have its first Athletics Giving Day Sept. 10.
For a 24-hour period from noon Sept. 10 to noon Sept. 11, people can give to support teams and raise money for scholarships, Director of Annual Giving Jorge Payen said.
UTPB has 14 athletic teams.
“This will be our first Athletics Giving Day. We’ve noticed that other universities have attempted this as well and had much success in it. Given that our current VP of Advancement (Sandi Bliss) came from a university that started this tradition over at their school recently, so we decided to adopt that same concept here. Hopefully it’s a huge success,” Payen said.
People can give in multiple ways through offline gifts by mailing or bringing a check into the advancement office and letting them know where they would like the funds to go, or they can go online to givingday.utpb.edu.
There will be a kickoff event from noon to 3 p.m. at the D. Kirk Edwards Family Human Performance Center. Some of the athletic teams will be on hand.
“We’ll have our new athletic director and President (Sandra)Woodley be in attendance, and we’re hoping to secure a company to come out that’s supplementing one of the challenges for the Athletics Giving Day to do a check presentation,” Payen said.
There will be an athletic director challenge.
“It’s a team challenge. Whichever team brings in the most donor percentages to the university during Giving Day will receive a $20,000 contribution to their team. We are working on a couple other challenges. We haven’t released any information on those just because we haven’t finished securing them, but once we do, we’ll definitely let that information out.
“As far as hidden items. We will be doing a VIP pass scavenger hunt. We’ll be having VIP passes around which students can then find and enter for a chance to raffle for a ultimate athletic swag pack,” Payen said.
The athletic swag pack will have different items donated by each team such as a sweatshirt or T-shirt.
“We believe it’s very important for our community and our students to be involved, especially (in) something as great as athletics. Our athletics program has been very successful in the last couple years …,” Payen said.
“… Last year, we had all of our teams making huge record-breaking seasons and so we want to make sure that we are supporting them in every aspect, whether it’s being on the field, on the court, off the field, or in the classroom. Everything that is donated during Athletics Giving Day will be going towards athletic teams and scholarships …” and the theme is 432 Where Champions Live, he added.
Payen said they hope to get the community behind this effort.
“It makes a huge impact on our athletic teams, and any (donation) no matter how small or how large, will make a huge impact in the lives of our student athletes,” Payen said.
