ASB trips fundraise
Ranging from bake sales to a foursquare tournament, members of Alternative Spring Break trips are getting creative to raise money. ASB sends students to various locations in the U.S. such as New Orleans, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, where students volunteer in projects and learn about different issues during the week of spring break.Community Involvement Center Director Mac Griswold said that the CIC covers the basic expenses, such as ASB T-shirts and the two-day training prior to the trips, but trip members are responsible for paying the expenses of the actual trip, such as plane tickets and living expenses. Excluding the $250 registration fee, the rest of the money comes from fundraising.
Griswold said the CIC worked with each group as early as October to come up with a feasible budget plan. Each group was responsible for deciding how much money they needed and how they were going to pay for it. Sometimes, if a group raises more money than it needs, the money may be directed to another group that needs help.
According to Griswold, personal solicitations - donations by request through mail - contribute to fundraising the most. Other common fundraisers include bake sales, boba tea sales, car washes and date auctions.
Hanszen College freshman Jane Jarjour said that her ASB group plans to host a barbecue for students tomorrow afternoon to raise money. They are also working with a restaurant to find a date when costumers can direct the proceeds of their meal to the trip.
Griswold said ASB groups are discouraged from applying for institutional funding from Rice except when the funding is related to and appropriate for the trip. Also, any donation by residential colleges needs to go through the CIC instead of individual ASB groups to avoid complications.
This year, Wiess College donated $5,000 to the CIC in honor of Christa Leimbach, a Wiess resident associate and the assistant director of CIC, who is leaving next year to attend graduate school.
Griswold said that Leimbach has contributed a lot to the growth of Rice's ASB program. Under her direction, the amount of trips organized have increased from one, nine years ago, to 15 this year.
All ASB groups participate in the Reliant Park program, a program fundraiser in which members assist in directing parking at Reliant Stadium for a night. Their pay goes directly to the ASB program.
The Owls Who Can Cook event on Feb. 5 is a program fundraiser that is new this year. The event consists of seven dinners hosted by Rice faculty and staff in their home, and proceeds from ticket sales will go to ASB trips. An ASB member or leader will be at each dinner as a representative. Because the tickets range from $25 to $75, the event is directed more toward other faculty and staff rather than students, although students are also welcome. Griswold said Wednesday that tickets were already sold out.
Jones College sophomore Allyssa Abacan and Will Rice College senior Valerie Le, leaders of the KIPP Impact ASB, also said that they received a good response from their T-shirt and sweatpants sale. They also plan to do a late-night food sale soon.
"[Students] are excited about the late-night food," Abacan said.
Jarjour said that doing fundraising together helped the members of the group to get to know each other better.
While most groups have just begun fundraising, Sid Richardson College sophomore Allen Lin, leader of the Camp Campbell ASB, said that they expect to reach their fundraising goal with the bake sales they plan to do in the next few weeks because they have received a lot of donations from friends and family.
Sid freshman Rebecca Lee and Hanszen College junior Kevin Ting said that they bought cupcakes from ASB members because the cupcakes looked really good.
"I just wanted to eat cupcakes," Ting said.
Hanszen College junior Eleana Little said that she bought the cupcakes both because she was hungry and because she supports the cause.
"I mean, I would rather buy a bag of chips for 75 cents at a vending machine instead of a cookie for a dollar if I didn't know it was for a good cause," Little said.
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