For 24 hours the California Lutheran University community had the opportunity to donate to the Cal Lutheran annual fund for scholarships and academics as well as earn matching gifts up to $10,000 from the Cal Lutheran alumni for the annual Gumby Gives Day.

“The annual fund is there to raise money to make sure students have access to the best faculty, classroom resources and learning experiences.  It also provides scholarships,” Adam Lee, Cal Lutheran student and phonathon supervisor at the annual fund, said.

Lee said it’s a celebration of the 45^th anniversary of the annual fund and the 30^th anniversary of the Gumby statue as well as a great opportunity for students to give their class gift.

“No amount is too small, we receive help from corporations based off of participation rates, not just dollar amount,” Lee said.

Cal Lutheran Alumni and Assistant Director of the annual fund Dacotah Smith said during the day they had free pizza, kettle corn and a raffle for Starbucks and bookstore gift cards. There were also discounts at the bookstore and a countdown clock counting down the hours of the first annual 24-hour giving day.

“When students donate their class gift it goes back to help them in the long run. It helps make students’ lives on and off campus better by supporting new technology, new lab equipment, sports equipment, scholarships and even 15 percent of tuition. The day was more successful than we could have imagined,” Smith said. “Being the first ever 24-hour giving day we were blown away by our results. $54,142.09 from donors, and an additional $25,000 in matching gifts making a total of $79,142.09 in just 24 hours.”

Samantha Beemer, a student caller for the Cal Lutheran annual fund, believes students should want to donate because the annual fund gives back directly to them. It’s basically a scholarship fund and is the reason why students here have scholarship opportunities, which is the reason most students can attend Cal Lutheran.

“Gumby Gives Day is our first dedicated 24-hour giving day, which was designed to raise awareness of our annual fund. It’s important to donate today specifically because we have a few donors who have been lined up to match certain amounts that we make,” Beemer said.

According to Beemer, this is the first time the annual fund has done anything like this, and she was pleased it turned out to be so successful.

“It’s truly amazing how everyone came to give back and support the CLU annual fund and Gumby Gives Day. Over 90 percent of Cal Lutheran students are on some type of scholarship, which is insane,” Beemer said. “The annual fund is the reason for that I feel so connected to this event because I have an amazing scholarship, and without that scholarship I wouldn’t have been able to come here.”

Jessica Gilbert
Staff Writer
Published April 13th, 2016