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A successful fundraising campaign for the George Mason men’s volleyball team resulted in the program receiving a $5,000 one-time donation from an alumnus.
The Patriots athletics department announced last week that the George Mason men’s volleyball team surpassed all other teams in a recent fundraising campaign and was rewarded with a $5,000 donation for finishing in first place.
The Ten for Ten Alumni-Athlete Fundraising Challenge pitted each team’s former athletes against each other to help raise money for the George Mason athletics department.
If 10 percent of all alumni athletes made a contribution, a $10,000 donation would be made by former George Mason athletes Dan and Patty Wotring. In addition, half of the $10,000 would be awarded to the team with the highest percentage of participation.
The George Mason men’s volleyball team had 29 percent of its alumni participate in the fundraiser — five more percentage points than the wrestling team that finished in second place.
“It is a testament to our university and to our program that our alumni continue to remain loyal supporters,” George Mason coach Fred Chao said in a statement. “The contest was a great opportunity to expand the group and to get more former student-athletes back into the fold of George Mason Athletics. I would like to thank Dan and Patty Wotring for being shining examples of alumni-athletes, and I hope that the spirit of their generosity sparks more alumni-athletes to reconnect with the programs that played a part in shaping their lives.”
Men’s volleyball and wrestling were the only two George Mason teams to have more than 15 percent of its alumni make a donation.
The Ten for Ten in its inaugural year helped raise more than $90,000 for George Mason teams and increased the amount alumni-athletes donating to the school by 33 percent. The fundraiser also led to the athletics department having a record amount of donors in a single fiscal year.
The Patriots men’s volleyball team had a $54,027 team operating budget during the 2010 season, according to the most recent report on college athletics budgets released by the U.S. Department of Education.
That amount was the fourth highest operating budget in the 2009-10 school year of the eight teams currently in the EIVA, according to the report.
George Mason finished last season in second place in the EIVA and lost to Springfield in the conference tournament semifinals. The Patriots have five starters returning for the upcoming season, including outside attacker Mark Jones who finished the 2011 season fifth in the nation with a 4.46 kills per game average.