Greetings all.  We’re about a month into our first ever Annual Fund Campaign.  I’m pretty pleased with the results thus far, but we have a long way to go to reach our ultimate goal of $20,000.

In an effort to offer an incentive for larger donors, at the AVC meeting in November we approved the following:

• Pledges at the Swindell Society level ($1,000+) will be awarded TWO complimentary SweetHeart Ball tickets for the SHB event in 2015
• Pledges at the Marshall’s Men Level ($500-$999) will be awarded ONE complimentary SweetHeart Ball ticket for the SHB event in 2015

We have already started talking about SHB for 2015 and anticipate the event to be held toward the end of April or early May.  If you’ve already made your pledge, but would like to bump it up to take advantage of this incentive, please feel free!  We will grant these complimentary tickets to anyone RSVPing for the event that pledged/donated at either level.

Last week, the actives once again volunteered for the annual Mustard Seed Annual Charity Auction & Dinner.  About five years ago, we went looking for Philanthropic opportunities and Mustard Seed was one we picked and we’ve been doing it ever since.  Mustard Seed is a Fort Wayne organization that’s mission is “to provide household furnishings to families and individuals in our community…”  Mustard Seed provides beds, furniture, etc. to those in need or to those in hardship.  They are a “100% donation based agency” and their biggest fundraiser is the Auction and Dinner (now in it’s 12^th year).

This year, the actives sent 12 total members (four new guys) to help out.  They were:  James Franklin, Ryan Seiler, Devin Stone, Michael Levdahl, Jon Muller, Demarkus Polk, Kannen Murdock, Nate Jackemeyer, Chris Newman, Sam Spata, John Paul Inholt and Mitchel Showman.  The guys showed up in formal attire and assisted with:  checking in and out attendees, assisting with running the silent and live auctions for the evening, logistics (loading/unloading donated items and moving things around as needed), and other miscellaneous tasks.  Ultimately, the guys efforts helped Mustard Seed raise $119,000; and 337 Beds.

John Paul indicated that everyone that went had a very good time helping out.  They all saw the event as a very positive experience which gave those who attended an opportunity to bond over a great cause.  They even made some connections with the staff which might lead to future opportunities and networking.  The food (provided by Club Soda) was pretty awesome as well!

SigEp Indiana Eta is the only organization that was volunteering at the event, and when contacted for comment, Suzie Jordan, Executive Director had this to say: “For over 5 years the Mustard Seed Furniture Bank has had the benefit of having the Sig Eps volunteer at our annual charity auction and dinner.   Each year the gentlemen represent their organization, Indiana Tech and themselves personally in a professional manner!  Their help during the evening is great and vital to the overall success of our event!”

We’re proud to help out and support such a great and worthwhile charitable organization in Fort Wayne and look forward to other opportunities to volunteer with them!

For more about Mustard Seed, please visit: http://www.mustardseedfortwayne.com/

You’ve heard us talk about the $40,000 we invested over the past year in making some house improvements.  Here’s our chance to show you the fruits of those labors as well as to give you an idea of what was done.  Many alumni were involved in the renovation work, but a lot of thanks goes to Chris Hoff and Justin Neff for putting in a significant amount of the work.  Here’s just a taste of what was done:

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If you look to the right hand side of the homepage, you’ll notice that we’ve launched our first ever Annual Fund Drive for 2014/2015.  This is the first time that the AVC has ever attempted an annual fund and we are looking for your help to reach our ultimate goal of $20,000.

One thing we heard over and over again from people at the 50th Anniversary was: How can I support you or donate? How come you’ve never asked me for money or contributions? Well, NOW YOU CAN and now we are!

We have partnered with OmegaFi to facilitate this fund drive, and we’ve made it flexible and easy to donate. Not only that, but you can setup ACH or Debit Card withdraws over a period of time. So maybe you want to spread a donation out, well, now you can!

The AVC still has a lot of work we would like to do on our existing structure to improve the quality of the house while we still utilize it. Ultimately, we want to make the house safer and a more pleasant experience to live in for our undergraduates.

We sincerely hope you will consider a donation to the fund drive!

For non-brothers that wish to donate, you can do so by printing out and mailing the form here:http://tinyurl.com/qg5ak49 or calling OmegaFi directly at 800.955.2586

If you wish to know more or have any questions, please contact me directly.

-Brandan Haines
Fundraising Chair

Hopefully by now, you’ve heard us talking about the large amount of renovations and updates we did to the house last year.  I thought I’d share with you some of the pictures that were taken prior to the renovation. I’ll be posting some pics of the post updates next week!

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