Bouncing for a good cause
Bouncing on a trampoline for 48 hours straight may seem like a lot of work to some people, but the members of NDSU FarmHouse Fraternity and Lambda Delta Sigma of Concordia know that this annual activity is worth the hard work.
The fifth annual Bounce-a-Thon began at 11 a.m. Tuesday and ended at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Bounce-a-Thon was founded five years ago by former FarmHouse Fraternity member, Adam Flaagan, and has been raising money for the Shriners Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota ever since.
“ It’s a different way to raise money and it all goes to an excellent cause,” Jon Gussiaas, FarmHouse Fraternity’s Service Chair, said.
Gussiaas said that both FarmHouse and LDS went around to local businesses and also to their hometown businesses to get donations for the cause.
“ Shriners Children’s Hospital is such great place because so many children can benefit from the care they get while being there,” Rebecca Reiff, president of Lambda Delta Sigma, said. “We want to do whatever we can to help the children and help provide them with a great future because they are our future.”
Reiff said everyone had to donate at least one hour to bouncing on the trampoline, which was set up in front of FarmHouse Fraternity and LDS girls had to bounce at least one day for four hours, two during the day and two at night.
Gussiaas said that the group set a donation goal of $2,000 this year, which is around $500 more than they’ve made in the past.
“ We’ve raised the stakes a little more this year and tried a few different things,” Gussiaas said. “We also put a collection bucket at FarmHouse for NDSU students to drop money in if they want to.”
Reiff said that to help reach their goal, the two organizations had a silent auction and a date auction from 5 – 7 p.m. Wednesday at the FarmHouse Fraternity.
Local businesses donated items for the silent auction. Both FarmHouse and LDS had two representatives from each organization donate themselves for the date auction.
Anyone attending the event could bid on the individual for one date.
Both organizations hope to the event will continue to be a success in the future.