BY TUCKER REILLY, EDITOR IN CHIEF
St. Bonaventure University’s renowned alumni involvement has been on display this week, as students traveled to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Semifinals. While the university was unable to provide transportation for the tournament’s prior matchups, administrators began to plan bus routes almost immediately after this round was set.
“Basically as soon as we won Tuesday, we – myself, Rob DeFazio and Meghan Hall – began looking for bus companies for this trip,” said Tom Missel, the university’s chief communications officer. “We encouraged alumni not to donate early, because we were actively searching for a company but we realized quickly that this would be harder than we expected. Each bus needs two drivers and the journey is especially long, so that also makes it pretty expensive. An alumni with a bus contracting agency helped to partner us with a company and we opened up donations then to pay for the trip.”
While Bonaventure has a dedicated online portal for accepting donations, the university also accepted donations through Venmo. Missel described the unique qualities of Venmo as a fundraising tool.
“We accepted donations through our normal portal and through Venmo,” said Missel. “Venmo was a new avenue for us but it allowed us to connect with what a lot of younger people are doing, it’s very convenient in that way.”
Bonaventure alumni began a large fundraising campaign prior to the team’s matchup against the University of Virginia on Mar. 22. While that effort (not organized by the university) raised over $6,000, the present fundraiser had amassed approximately $55,000 as of Monday, according to Missel. Dominique Morabito, a member of Bonaventure’s class of 1986, explained her reasons for donating.
“I was happy to donate towards transporting students to MSG for a number of reasons. First, that’s what Bonnies do – take care of each other,” said Morabito. “Additionally, this basketball team has been amazing and deserved to have as much fan support as possible. Donating was an easy way to continue supporting the school that has done so much for me.”
The university purchased a block of 500 seats for students, priced at $10 each. Additionally, over 400 students reserved seats – free of charge due to alumni donations – on the 13 total buses that departed for New York.
Despite this effort, no buses departed for New York on Thursday, as the Bonnies lost to Xavier on Tuesday night. Nevertheless, the university had planned to continue fundraising in the event of a Bonnies win.
“We were waiting until Tuesday to see whether we needed to send another call out – and we would have if the team won,” said Missel. “As of Monday, we would have had enough money to cover two to three buses, not the amount we had for Tuesday’s game. A lot of people also might have opted-out of the second trip, you know, not wanting to make another 12-hour bus ride in the same week.”
Missel noted that any leftover funds will still be used for student purposes.
“In the event we lost Tuesday, the remaining funds would be donated into a student direct fund,” said Missel. “So you will be seeing it regardless.”
reillyt19@bonaventure.edu
