Hello Everyone!
Sarah Palmer (Pe
p Band Fundraising Co-Chair) here to tell you the incredible tale of the band who dreamed, and succeeded, at defeating a hockey team.
The Pep Band stepped out of the shadowy section A and onto the ice for the annual Pink the Rink competition. Pink the Rink is an effort to raise money and awareness for the battle against breast cancer. The hockey team sponsors the event to help the student body get involved. Elizabeth Martinson (The Other Co-Chair) and I, both came to the realizations that as an integral part of the Lynah experience the Pep Band should make their presence known. We wanted to show how the pep band cares about Lynah and the important fight against a deadly disease. The Pink the Rink website clearly displays who has donated and how they compare to the others. The Pep Band was making a poor showing, several sororities were above us; it was embarrassing. Originally Liz and I simply asked the band to follow the links in our sassy emails to donate. We told them the prizes from winning the competition and hoped they would take the initiative. Soon we realized if we really wanted to make a difference we had to up the ante. We spoke to the conductors and secured a warm-up set for the Friday game. This formed another layer of competition between the sections, for a chance to pick three songs.
Pitting the sections against each other was the holy grail of fundraising ideas. Simultaneously we were tapping into the bands pride in the Pep Band, and their particular section. Like Monty Python and his knights the sections threw themselves into the noble quest. Liz and I made sure that the band was very aware of the standings of their section. Leaders were congratulated. Those who dawdled were playful taunted. “Your mothers are hamsters and your fathers smell of elderberries.” Not really, but we did have to overcome some French Canadians to win. Donations came in waves, usually following an email. Liz did a fantastic job of logging all the funds as they came in. The Pep band came out and represented our organization. Everyone who went on the fundraiser website could see the Pep Band proudly displayed. The competition got the bands blood flowing, but it was the overall display of altruism that won the day. This disease has affected many people and they converted their pain into donations for the cause. Liz and I never imagined that in a few days we would overtake most of the other organizations. Even once we passed them the Hockey Team still seemed like an impossible goal. They were a furry white tail in the distance, but in a flash this tortoise of a pep band overtook
them and crossed the finish line.
Liz and I are proud that as fundraising chairs for Spring 2015 we were able to bring the band into the Pink the Rink fundraiser and assert the band’s place in the Lynah Faithful.
-Sarah Palmer ’17