Gold and brown tables were scattered around the pit in the Chamberlain Student Center, and upbeat music filled the air. While the loud music echoed through the Student Center, students and alumni representing their favorite Rowan groups promoted organizations and showed students what they were all about.

Clubs and organizations are a crucial part of the college lifestyle and they wouldn’t be possible without fundraising and donations. Every year, since 2013, Rowan University holds an 24-hour event called Rowan’s Day of Giving. With gifts and challenges, the event has raised about  $1.7 million since its creation. The 11th annual Rowan Day of Giving was held on Wednesday, Feb. 26, and organization leaders were hopeful to raise funds for their organizations and to add to the total earnings. 

Rowan University’s first ever food pantry, The Shop, is an essential organization that aids hundreds of Profs each week. A lot goes into keeping the pantry running, from getting the food, keeping it fresh, and keeping the delivery van going. With the help of funds raised from Rowan’s Day of Giving, The Shop is hopeful to continue their organization and to continue to help more students.

“Last year, thanks to a private donor, we had one of those challenges, and it was if we unlocked 100 gifts, we got an additional $20,000 so last year, we actually raised around like $30,000…Which was awesome. Like even just painting the house, when our delivery van that we use for our deliveries every day needs repairs, just all of those types of things, and trying to make sure that we also can kind of build up a bigger fund, so that when we are able to move up and explore the Resource Center,” said Rowan alum Alexandria Kerr.

The Shop wasn’t the only organization in the pit of the Student Center. Bria Miller, a graduate student at Rowan, and Sam Deeney, a senior public relations and advertising double major, stood in front of a brown and gold table fundraising for Rowan University’s Academic Support Programs. 

“We offer some services like tutoring and success coaching. We also have a program called SOAR, students organize to affirm recovery. And all these services work to aid students as they progress in their academic journey,” said Miller. 

By sitting in the pit of the Student Center, Rowan’s academic support program participated in the Day of Giving, hoping that students, parents, alumni, and community members would donate to their initiative. 

“We are a few $1,000 away from being able to unlock even more funding for our program, which would help us to be able to expand our whole thing so SOAR, tutoring, and success coaching,” said Deeny. 

Besides upgrading their program and continuing to build their organization, donations to Rowan’s Academic Support Programs would also benefit the student body. 

“The funding from today would really help us with materials like our tutors use a lot of, obviously, whiteboards, markers, erasers. We even provide materials to students who come in at times if they need to borrow a calculator or take pencils, pens. We offer a lot of services in general, but also a lot of materials to students who come in that need to use our services,” said Miller.

The Shop and the university’s Academic Support Programs are just two of hundreds of clubs and organizations that participated in Rowan’s Day of Giving. A total of $426,475 was raised for Rowan’s clubs and organizations.