Badger Women's Rowing 'Rakes' in Money for Charity
December 09, 2004 | Women's Rowing
Nearly 30 members from the women's openweight and lightweight rowing teams volunteered their time in Shorewood Hills, Saturday, Dec. 4, to raise money for the UW chapter of Habitat for Humanity in its annual 'Rake-a-thon' fundraiser.
'Our team always likes to do something to help out in the community,' said junior Bryana Seifert. 'The timing of this event worked out well with our off-season since we're not traveling and there was interest among the team so we decided to participate.'
Habitat for Humanity is an international non-profit organization whose goal is to eliminate substandard housing worldwide. In 1993, a UW student chapter was established, which has built three houses for low-income families to date and is in the process of raising money to build a fourth.
The fundraising goal of the chapter in 2004-05 is $33,000, which will allow UW students to build a house in Madison and donate money to affiliates on trips. The Rake-a-Thon is one of many annual fundraisers sponsored by the chapter. Last year, the event raised $4,000 over three fall weekends surpassing the proposed goal by 33 percent.
This year, the Badger women rowers decided to bundle up and lend their strong arms to an afternoon of leaf-raking in support of the cause. They divided into small groups of seven or eight to conquer a number of spacious yards adorned with thousands of leaves. Each yard took between one and two hours to rake, and the suggested wage was $25 dollars per hour per girl, all of which would be donated to the Madison chapter.
Openweight junior Meg Bradshaw was unsure of the total amount raised by the rowing teams, but an afternoon of team bonding and volunteering was well worth her while.
'It really was a lot of fun to get out there and rake, ' she said. 'It was a really nice day, and it made it even better being with teammates knowing all the while that you were raising money for a great cause. '
The Badger rowers are no stranger to community service. In addition to the Rake-a-thon this holiday season, the team is also assembling Christmas baskets for the needy and donating old clothes to the Warm Clothes Drive sponsored by SAC. Last year, the team was also active babysitting for low-income families. Bradshaw hopes the Rake-a-thon fundraiser will become an annual event for her team.
'I would love to make this a yearly tradition for our team and hopefully even get the novice team involved next year,' she said.
