The purple bucket sits atop of the table with a few white slips of paper leaning over the edge. A customer walks in, orders his sandwich and gently places the receipt in the bucket, not realizing the impact he will make.
The receipts collected from Firehouse Subs on Monday, Oct. 10 were a part of a profit share ran by Aggie Relay for Life to raise money and awareness for cancer patients and research.
More customers slowly trickle in and two Aggie Relay for Life members sit at the table, quietly thanking each person who places a receipt in the bucket.
“We have profit shares all throughout the year and the profit shares go toward making relay happen,” said Hannah Finley, executive director for remember category and senior civil engineering major. “We have this motto- fundraising isn’t all we do, but all we do depends on fundraising.”
The profit share will raise anywhere between 100 and 400 dollars depending on how many people show up to the restaurant. This, however, is only a small part of the 64,000 dollars the organization raises each year, giving it the title of raising the most money out of all the colleges in Texas.
“We tried flyers in the past but that didn’t work out too well, so now, we are spreading the word through Facebook and word of mouth,” said Joshua Swallow, senior management major and executive director for fundraising. “I literally just started working with profit shares this year, so we are just hoping to get every little bit we can get.”
Aggie Relay for Life works to bring cancer survivors together while calling for students to get involved and contribute to the American Cancer Society.
“We’ve had a lot of survivors on campus come up to us and say ‘hey I had cancer or I know someone who had cancer, and I want to get involved,’” Finley said. “Not only is that us reaching out but a lot of people were involved in high school and want to continue.”
For Swallow the idea to get involved in Relay for Life started when his roommate wanted to join organizations.
“I really liked it and stayed with it, and now, I’m a director,” Swallow said. “I feel like any person you talk to has been affected by cancer in some way.”
The organization will hold five more profit shares this semester and has a 5K planned for Dec. 3.
“Fundraising can be difficult,” Swallow said. “The best way for me is learning from people and [talking] to people who have a lot of experience with it and find out what’s worked for them and what hasn’t and go from there.”
Finding out about the profit share by word of mouth is what happened for junior systems engineering major Kristopher Kint who attended the event at Firehouse Subs.
“I heard from friends and both of them have done the profit share before and one of them is even in charge of it,” Kint said. “I really didn’t know about it until my friends told me.”
Even though Kint did not find out till last minute, he said anyway he can help an organization makes a difference.
“I know my contribution is a small one in the overall scheme,” Kint said. “In any of the other organizations that I am in, any profit share and any money raised helps in multiple ways. Even though I might be a stone in a stream, I’m still there and a part of it and making a difference.”