As fans, sometimes we yell at each other.  Sometimes we complain about who is the least supportive and argue about who is the most supportive.  Sometimes, our teams are overrated or underrated or rated just right. Sometimes, we lament or revel the state of a program, the attendance, or our own ability or inability to get back to campus to offer our support.

And sometimes, we cut through everything and make something magical happen.

Last Friday, I had the novel idea of sponsoring kids to attend the Pitt-SU game.  My original intention was to gather enough donations to buy 2 of the $250 ticket packages for the Boys and Girls Club of Syracuse - which would send around 22 kids and a couple of chaperones to the game.

When we very quickly broke through the pledge goal, it became apparent that this was taking on a life of its own.  While I was on the phone with the involved organizations throughout the day, the donations continued to pour in.  We collected so much that we were able to include an additional 10 kids from the Southwest Community Center.

With the dust settled, here are some stats on what we all helped make possible:

• $1,593.94 + my original pledge of $210 = $1,803.94 donated
  
• 66 donors
• 36 Orange Out shirts (we bought almost all of Manny's remaining inventory on Friday night)
• $360 in food vouchers
• 3 HCDM signed footballs (and an unknown amount of other swag - stickers, decals, etc.)
• 32 very happy kids (and 4 chaperones) sent to the Dome

We certainly have some money left over.  When I am done working out the math and who needs to get paid back for what, we will probably put the remainder in a 501(c)(3) organization's account (be it a new one of our own or through a campus organization) and continue this awesome effort for future games.

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this happen.  The organizations are extremely appreciative of our generosity and their kids had a blast.  To quote Duane from the Boys and Girls Club, "It is so wonderful to expose children to opportunities like this."

Some more photos for your enjoyment:

Shirts lined up at Manny's - special thanks to Kevin Luk for purchasing them in person for us, as they don't accept phone orders

Excellent Orange hair

Cheering on the home team

Some seriously tasty Dome pizza