JAIMIE FRANKLIN
News Assistant
Student-led organization Pepperdine4Service has planned a flag football competition for students this weekend as part of the “Rice Bowl,” a fundraising campaign for the nonprofit organization Rice International.
The day will start at 1 p.m. in Alumni Park with student teams of five gathering to start competition.
Any group of students or student organization can register a team for a fee of $5 per person.
The final competition will take place at around 5 p.m., with the winning team receiving iPods. Various other prizes will be raffled including Lakers tickets, gift certificates and clothing.
Sponsors of the event include Malibu Yo, Becker, Target, Ralphs and others from the Malibu community who have all donated something for the event.
Quiznos and Monster energy drinks will be at the event selling food and drinks for students. DJ Lance will also attend to provide music during the competition.
“A lot of people have been extremely generous for our cause,” said junior and public relations officer Nicole Zoeller.
The activity was planned as part of a business course dealing with management theory and practices. On the first day of class, students were divided up and each was given a position and responsibility. Through the course of the semester, students have worked together to plan the event.
“We are running a nonprofit organization to learn all the different business units involved and [learn] what it takes to run a business,” Zoeller said.
Pate Giltner, junior and public relations officer, said the project offered her exciting personal opportunities.
“It’s great because I’ve never been involved in an actual business or been the leader of a group before,” she said.
Teamwork also played a major role for many students.
“We’ve learned to work as a team,” junior and public relations officer Jerry Pantoja said. “There were times when we thought it wouldn’t work out but then people pulled through. It taught us trust.”
This year’s class is the third to take the project on but the idea for the Rice Bowl is entirely original.
“Every class tries to improve and build upon what the last class did,” Zoeller said.
All proceeds from raffle tickets, giveaways, entry fees and more will be donated to Rice International, an organization that provides food distribution and educational contributions to Third World countries around the world, particularly in South America.
“We wanted an organization that we could deal with personally,” Giltner said.
The CEO of the company is a family friend of a student in the class and will meet with students to receive the donation check in person.
“We thought about who we could help and decided we wanted to help everyone of all ages that are less fortunate,” Giltner said.
According to students, their ultimate goal is to raise thousands of dollars for the organization while showing participants a good time.
“It’s a great thing to play football and also just know its going to rice relief,” Pantoja said.
Students from the class will have a table set up in Waves Café all week for sign-ups. Anyone interested may also contact Nicole Zoeller at Nicole.Zoeller@pepperdine.edu.
“I think on a personal level we would just like it to be a fun event for students to participate in and to create higher awareness in the community,” Zoeller said. “You don’t have to wait until graduation to make a difference.”
11-16-2006