From March 14-21, Waynesburg University hosted its annual Orange Week. Students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to raise money for their departments,clubs and organizations throughout the week.

Director of Development and Alumni Relations David Floyd shared his thoughts on how this years Charter Day experience has been from any other, saying, “We were pretty excited and we ended up surpassing the number of donations that we got last year, and it’s definitely something we are excited about, and obviously it’s always great to raise a lot of money…Part of orange week and part of events like the Day of Giving has a lot of participation, as well and having a higher individual donation number is huge.” 

Vice President of Institutional Advancement and University Relations Stacy Brodak spoke about the purpose of Orange Week, saying, “There was something planned every day for students to do and donate. We wanted students to get involved because these funds were for them, and we wanted to spread the word in any way possible.”

Orange Week just finished its fourth year of existence, and in that time, the University has been able to create development opportunities, as well as work with different organizations across Green County and Southern Pennsylvania.

“Orange Week, Day of Giving and more of the crowdfunding-focused events; we really tried to get a lot of participation from a lot of different areas,” Floyd said. “Students, faculty, staff, parents, family members, alumni and friends of the University could’ve participated in this event to try to raise awareness and create excitement. We wanted there to be momentum around the day and what the day is trying to accomplish with helping our students and being able to enrich their experiences in a lot of different areas.”

Orange Week didn’t always fall in the earlier part of the month; in fact, Orange Week and Charter Day sometimes fell on the same week.

“Coincidentally, the first week we did, it fell on Charter Day week,” Brodak said.  “It seemed like perfect timing, and we wanted to do it before finals week, so it would cause less of a burden to everyone on campus.”

Waynesburg raised a total of $60,194.04 with a total of 659 donations. From the organizational side of things, the Department of Biology and Environmental Science and Health Science hit their goal of $2,500 after doing hands-on field work at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, followed by Biblical and Ministry Studies, which also hit their goal of $2,050 to purchase new Bibles for class. On the sports side, the football team surpassed their goal of $10,500, as they raised $14,611.04 for new travel gear. Men’s soccer and women’s softball rounded out the highest number of donations, with soccer raising $10,710 and softball raising $2,515.