Many student organizations look to local Tuscaloosa businesses to help them raise money for their causes. Whether it’s serving up ice cream at Coldstone Creamery or getting a cut of the profits at McAlister’s Deli, students are teaming up with these local businesses to raise funds and awareness for their causes.
Last Tuesday, Oct. 16, Beat Auburn Beat Hunger held a fundraising event at Coldstone Creamery.
“Back in March, I emailed the owner in order to reserve a fundraiser date during the food drive,” Andres Mendieta, director of Beat Auburn Beat Hunger, said. “The Coldstone fundraiser is definitely a popular one, so we had to reserve it back in the spring in order to get a spot this fall.”
Glenn Dodd, the owner of Coldstone Creamery, said he thinks his fundraising program has a lot of popularity within the community because the students and organization members are able to get behind the counter.
“I actually have to turn a lot of groups away,” Dodd said. “Every Tuesday night, we host groups from throughout the community. The group members get to ‘become the crew,’ in a sense. They get behind the counter and serve the ice cream themselves.”
Dodd said he comes in every Tuesday before the groups start to train them.
“Not only am I donating money, but also time because I personally train each group on every Tuesday,” Dodd said. “I can’t put them back there without knowing what they’re doing.”
Mendieta said the BABH members enjoyed getting behind the counter.
“We had some football players come in and it was a bit hectic at times, but we loved every second,” he said.
Last Friday, Sweet Cece’s held a similar fundraiser night for the Literacy Council of West Alabama. READ Alabama, a student-led literacy program on campus, partnered with the Literacy Council in promoting the event.
“We wanted to use our connection with campus students to reach more people and hopefully increase the turnout,” Brianna Adams, assistant director of communication for READ, said. “We’re so thankful for the Literacy Council of West Alabama, and the least we could do was help them advertise their fundraiser. Our goals go hand-in-hand with one another, so it was great to partner with the Literacy Council for this event.”
According to their website, an organization can fill out an online application and turn it in to their local Sweet Cece’s in order to be considered for a fundraising night.
“This semester, READ is working on creating a sense of community within the organization, so anything that serves to reach out to our volunteers and make the organization seem more like a family is a success to us,” Adams said. “And 20 percent of the sales went directly to the Literacy Council of West Alabama. How much better does it get than that?”
Adams and Mendieta both said they advertised for their events through social media like Facebook and Twitter, in addition to word-of-mouth.
“We advertised the event heavily via our Facebook page and created a corresponding Facebook event so that READ volunteers could easily access the details of the event and invite any of their friends to come as well,” Adams said.
Mendieta said Dodd and the entire Coldstone crew were both very pleasant and easy to work with throughout their fundraising event.
“Glenn was very easy to work with, and everything went smoothly,” Mendieta said. “We had a great turnout, and I thought it was very successful. I don’t want to reveal how much money we made due to our competition with Auburn. I don’t want to give them any idea how much we’ve raised.”
Adams said she hopes READ and the Literacy Council of West Alabama will be able to pair up on an event like this in the future.
“We would love to talk with the Literacy Council of West Alabama about planning a similar event in the future,” Adams said. “I had a blast, and the other volunteers who I talked with seemed to be enjoying themselves as well.”
Even though Dodd loses some of his profits for these fundraising nights, he said he puts on these events to help out within the community.
“We’re in a bit of a struggle right now because of competition in the community,” Dodd said. “It’s definitely a donation on my part. I do it because it helps out these groups in our community. I’m glad to help.”
Coldstone Creamery is at capacity for fundraising nights for the rest of the fall semester and spring 2013. Those interested in hosting a fundraising night for Sweet Cece’s can go to sweetceces.com/community for more information. Beat Auburn Beat Hunger runs through Nov. 16.
