People often travel to Amusement parks for fun, the PA Beta Gamma Chapter, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, plans three weekends a year at Cedar Point to work.This is their main fundraiser in which they work rides, haunted houses and games for three weekends out of the year.The park provides free overnight accommodations to all members of the chapter that attend the fundraiser.Cedar Point is located in Sandusky, OH and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, or IUP, is about an hour drive northeast of Pittsburgh, PA.They travel about four hours to get to the park.
Greg Titus, the KOE of PA Beta Gamma, has been one of the main planners of this fundraiser and kindly explains how he sets up this event, “There really isn’t much work into planning it. I simply went online to the cedar point website (www.cedarpoint.com) and clicked on the fundraiser section. There it will give you a list of the various departments that accepts fundraiser employees.Then all you need to do is email the designated person. Write in the email the name of your organization, university, and let them know that you are interested in working a fundraiser. They send you a W-2 form, and make sure you have your TAX ID/TAX Exemption Number. They will give you free parking passes, grooming guides for cedar point, and any other information you will need to know.”
Setting up the fundraiser is half the work, getting the members to do the fundraising is the other half. Greg mentions some tips and things to watch out for when doing fundraisers with your chapter, “You have to make sure your brothers know the dates of the trip and make sure the exact amount of people show up that you have signed up for it. The only problem we have is that some brothers tend to be lazy and try to get out of coming with a stupid excuse sometimes, just make sure that doesn’t happen.”
To encourage more group participation the PA Beta Gamma Chapter has also come up with an incentive program for their members, “We are requiring that you attend two out of the three weekends and if you attend all three then you will have what ever you made individually taken off your fraternal semester dues.”With this planning and incentive program the chapter usually gets good results and group participation.
At the end of their shift the Park allows them to go on the rides, so they do manage to get some fun in, says Greg “It is a lot of fun. I really enjoy spending the weekend with my brothers. When we are not working we are allowed to ride the rides and enjoy the park FOR FREE.”
The members of PA Beta Gamma agree this is a great fundraiser that is fun and helps them out financially generating around $4000.Since they’ve started this event four years ago it has changed their chapter for the better.They have been able to pay back any debt and have enough money left over for other chapter needs.
This fundraiser will also be helping other chapters that have asked to join in. PA Gamma Psi Colony at LockHavenUniversity not too far away from PA Beta Gamma Chapter is joining in on fund raising at Cedar Point for the fall of 2009.
If you would like to participate in this fundraiser or set up a similar fundraiser for your chapter and need help do not hesitate to ask.Planning these fundraisers is not hard, Greg Titus and the IHQ office are always willing to help.
