Tag team: Syracuse, Georgetown meet in middle to raise money, canned goods for food bank
As a crowd of more than 25,000 fans trickled into the Carrier Dome, the tension of one of college basketball’s oldest rivalries grew.
Fans booed loudly as the Georgetown University players took the court for warm-ups, screaming obscenities that accompanied their booing. A small child held up a sign larger than his entire frame that read, ‘I’ve hated Georgetown since I was a little kid.’
As the loudspeaker crackled on, however, there was a momentary lull in the Hoya hatred. Both teams of basketball players cleared the court for a small group of students holding an enormous check. All eyes were on the beaming students who had just raised $1,000 for the Food Bank of Central New York through activities such as tabling at Schine Student Center.
Though Georgetown and Syracuse battled on the court, they collaborated off the court in the Can It! charity event. Both schools are part of a national campaign known as Better Together, originally proposed by President Barack Obama as an initiative to get college campuses more involved in philanthropy. The campaign involved more than 200 schools total, each with a focus specific to their campus.
Syracuse University decided to focus on hunger, and Georgetown focuses on poverty. Syeisha Byrd, director of the Office of Community Engagement at SU, saw this as an opportunity. The members of the Interfaith Student Council, who work with Byrd often, did as well.
‘They kind of go hand-in-hand,’ Byrd said. ‘The students of the Interfaith Student Council thought it would be cool to work with Georgetown, because it’s always been our rival, and lay that rival down and bring collaboration to the table.’
Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers International provided the check after offering to match a dollar for every can raised by the Interfaith Student Council.
‘The deal was for three cans, you get a T-shirt,’ said Erica Monnin, a graduate student in the School of Education who involved with the campaign.
Monnin kept track of the volunteers for Wednesday’s activities at the Carrier Dome —30 volunteered for Can It! on that day alone.
The idea for Can It! as a project for the Interfaith Student Council originally came from Ismail Pathan, a junior finance major. He got the inspiration to collaborate with the Food Bank after attending Dollar Day at the Dome, a philanthropic event held at an SU football game earlier this year.
When Pathan suggested the idea to the Interfaith Student Council at a group meeting, the group thought that hosting an event at the Georgetown game would be a good idea because of Georgetown’s age-old rivalry with SU.
One volunteer, SaQuota Reaves, felt that this cause headed by the Better Together members and Food Bank deserved her dedication.
‘They’re helping families that don’t have food,’ said Reaves, a junior African-American studies major. ‘And just the fact that they’re willing help people be able to eat is a really big thing for me.’
Before the check presentation, volunteers of Can It! tabled behind the court before the game. Their table generated a lot of popularity from fans, largely due to their spin-the-wheel game that led to a lot of prize-winning.
The game cost $1 to play, and each dollar was donated to the Food Bank. Entire families approached the table to play, happily donating to the cause and walking away with cups, umbrellas, bracelets, buttons, T-shirts and water bottles.
Byrd thought setting up a table with prizes available to all donators was a smart idea for the campaign.
‘It gets the word out,’ Byrd said. ‘They’re getting Better Together shirts, and they can ask, ‘Well, what does this mean?”
Byrd smiled as she looked at the crowd around the table.
‘The Better Together Food Bank table,’ she said, starting to laugh. ‘We have the longest line!’
In the moment when PWC presented the check to the Food Bank, the Interfaith Student Council members were all smiles. They beamed at the cameras from center court and couldn’t stop smiling as they stepped off to the sidelines. They talked about how strange it was to hear their names announced over the loudspeaker, looking satisfied with the finale of their campaign.
Byrd’s words summed up the decision to work with Georgetown on the event: ‘Rivals on the court, but teammates on the fight against hunger.’
Published on February 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Contact Chelsea: cedebais@syr.edu | @CDeBaise124
