Predictably insert Katy Perry ROAR lyrics here

Today was ROAR (Raise Our Annual Responses) Day! I mentioned ROAR day just a few days ago when I posted about our Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge. Well, today was the BIG day when we could triple our impact!  

Good for one free ice cream cone! YEAH!

I decided this morning that I could even raise the stakes by offering a free CIS SWAG item to anyone who showed me proof that they donated to the Microgrants fund. Little did I expect that this would mean my day would be all-consumed by ROAR Day. But, that's okay, because it was fun to see so much spiRIT going around!

I gathered up some troops and we made our pledges right after the table outside CIS in the Unity Quad opened. I was very happy to see that they even had their own flyer for the Microgrant challenge prominently on display! As a gift for pledging we received small clip-on reflective blinking lights with "RIT" printed on them, so we turned them on and wore them as we used our stickers to get our free small ice cream cones from Ben & Jerrys (mm-mm!). I can certainly say that we were... attention-getting...

I should note, this all feels pretty funny for me, considering how incredibly anti-school spirit I have been for most of my life. This dissent lessened while I was in college since I actually loved RIT and took great pride in being here, but they didn't have spirit events when I was a student! I've tried participating in some events since I've been back as staff (eg Tiger Walk), but suffice it to say, I'm still no cheerleader.

Anyways, the rest of my available day ended up being devoted to ROAR Day, between getting the word out, helping people with pledge forms, handing out SWAG, et cetera, and then I had Staff Council and class. So note for next year: Do not expect to get anything else done on ROAR Day.

It's too soon to tell yet what kind of participation we got, but I do know I had about 25 people collect their CIS swag, so that's a pretty good indicator! (Especially assuming that there are probably people out there who did donate but don't care about getting a free bottle opener branded with the CIS logo.) I was especially pleased to see how many students participated, it was awesome!

Meanwhile, the icing on the cake came at the end of the day when I was CC'd on the following email:

MVRL'rs
Congratulations! A total of 21 students, staff, and faculty from the Multidisciplinary Vision Research Lab participated in the MVRL challenge, raising over $1,200 that will be doubled again by matches from Stefi Baum and the RIT administration.
The students exceeded their goal, donating $138, which the MVRL staff and faculty matched 2:1 for $276. With the directors' 2:1 match, the MVRL's total contribution was $1,242.00  After matches from Stefi and the administration, the students' contribution will grow to over $3,700!
Thanks to all who participated,
   Anne, Andy, and Jeff

WHOA! I did not even know that MVRL issued their own challenge in addition to Stefi's AND to RIT's! How cool is that?!? I am so impressed with how MVRL embraced the challenge, and their efforts resulted in a major positive impact for the Microgrant fund. What a shining example of ROAR Day spiRIT!

I do know that overall, RIT exceeded its ROAR Day goal early this afternoon. From what I can tell, this was also a very successful ROAR Day for CIS. I can't wait to see the final numbers!