All monies raised during the State College Santa Crawl go to the Pat Boland Memorial Internship Award, a fund set up at Penn State to aid Penn State College of Communications students when they go out on internships.
Pat was a long-time radio news and sports reporter in State College who lost his life to cancer in 2011. Despite enduring a long struggle with the disease, Pat never ceased to have a bright positive outlook on life. He participated in several of our early Santa Crawls so when we decided to leverage our growth toward a good cause, Pat’s fund seemed like a logical choice.
We implemented the wristband cover charge approach last year and it was an overwhelming success as we raised $2055.26 for the Boland Fund. We were one of the very first contributors to the fund. Our contribution helped kick start some other fund raising efforts during 2012. Jabco-Maggi Mitsubishi donated a portion of their sales during the month of August. Forever Broadcasting held a mini-golf tournament and memorabilia auction that raised over $10,000 in September.
At the moment, the Boland Fund sits at about $16,500. Once the fund hits $20,000 it becomes endowed and can start handing out awards to deserving communications students. Our goal with the Santa Crawl this year is to be the group that sends the fund over its $20,000 target.
Pass the word to your friends and encourage them to come out and support this cause – and have a pretty fun time while doing so.
