OSU’s marching band practices Script Ohio before a game. The band is offering a chance for faculty and staff to take part in such a practice as thanks for donating to the band’s Campus Campaign fund.
Faculty and staff who donate to TBDBITL during Campus Campaign will get a unique thank you. Hint: There could be an ‘i’ involved.
By Jeff McCallister
Few, however, are in as unique a position as OSU’s marching band to come up with a fun way to say thanks.
“I know that sometimes I can take for granted the fact that my office key opens Ohio Stadium,” said Jon Waters, the band’s director. “We’re so busy doing what we do, it’s easy for us to forget what a treasure the band is, and we came up with the wild idea that people here might enjoy getting to see what we do and see these students as real people instead of these robots that just kind of show up whenever you push a button.”
So Waters, along with the band’s development officer, Mark Mangia, and Lori Abshire from the Campus Campaign Council, came up with a special way to say thanks to those faculty and staff who choose to donate to the TBDBITL Script Ohio Fund
(No. 309538):
On Aug. 24, everyone who donates to that fund during the drive will be invited to a practice with TBDBITL.
“The whole plan is still kind of coming together,” Waters said. “I envision a chalk talk with the band, a Q&A session, sharing some music and a demo of a rehearsal, really give people an idea of how it all comes together. Then finally we’ll bring everyone onto the field and let them march in a Script Ohio with the band, just to really get that feeling of what the students go through.”
And the capper: One lucky donor will get to dot the “i” during the rehearsal.
The band might not be the first place folks might look to come up with a deserving recipient of their Campus Campaign. After all, as Waters affirms, the band does get a good deal of money from general funds.
But there’s a good deal that funding doesn’t cover.
Most of the students are not on scholarship; they pay out of their own pockets to have their uniforms dry-cleaned; they must purchase gloves and spats (the white piece that covers their shoes). That’s just a small part of the list — and as they spend around four hours per day practicing, while maintaining a 3.6 grade-point average, there’s simply no time left for anything like a part-time job.
“Every Campaign fund is worthwhile and deserving; I wouldn’t ever think otherwise,” Waters said. “But this fund for one is one where you can actually see the direct impact it has on our students — helping to buy an instrument, funding a trip to the Michigan game, giving some scholarship support to these students who go out and do such a great job representing the university.”
The way Abshire, Waters and Mangia have calculated, one $5-per-month donation through Campus Campaign will cover a student’s cost of half a season of dry-cleaning, spats for a season, gloves for a season or provide food for two students for one away game.
Put enough of those smaller donations together with perhaps one or two larger ones, and suddenly there’s enough to replace instruments, pay for hotel stays during trips to away games, purchase licenses for music for a show, get leadership training for squad leaders or provide scholarship money for students who deserve it.
Campus Campaign
Faculty and staff are an important part of the Ohio State’s $2.5 billion fundraising endeavor, But for Ohio State: The Campaign for The Ohio State University.
Campus Campaign is part of this initiative; the contributions that come in during Campus Campaign are used internally for Ohio State’s individual programs, projects and endowments. Campus Campaign donors choose where they want their gifts to be used according to their interest areas within the university. There are thousands of funds within Ohio State and the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
Go to Campus Campaign and click on the “Give online” button or search for funds, or fill out the Payroll deduction or Credit Card Gift form distributed by your department’s Campus Campaign leader (online giving is the preferred method. It is a safe, secure and easy way to make your gift. It also saves processing time and ensures greater accuracy.
As a proud alum of the OSUMB and an i-dotter, I enjoy the spirit of this incentive. I would encourage and hope that when the final logistics are in place, the lucky donor will be “allowed” to carry a sousaphone through the script as they make their way through the four crossovers en route to their final destination. This could go a long way to ensuring that they appreciate the full experience of dotting the i. Go Bucks!