CNU group raises double its goal with charity event, AIDS Walk
News Release - May 31, 2006
Contact:
Karen L. Gill
Office of Communications and Public Relations
karen.gill@cnu.edu
(757) 594-8428
 CNU's Team Supersnack poses before beginning the AIDS walk on May 21 in Central Park. Pictured from left in the front row are Allison Allen, Mike Raymond, Caryn May, Angela Hamilton, Rian Kerfoot, Denise Santomauro, Kimberly D. Lee. In the back row, from left, are Cash Arehart, Allen Brooks, Greg Poljacik, Mike Gamache, Fred Arsenault, Mike Bland and Adam Downs.  Team Supersnack members, from left, Greg Poljacik, Denise Santomauro, Zach Walker, Rian Kerfoot, Allison Allen, Kara Mitzel, Brian Pluta, Mike Raymond, Jenn Russo and Mike Bland participate in the 2006 AIDS Walk. |
(NEWPORT NEWS, Va.) — A group of Christopher Newport University alumni has raised more than $20,000 for AIDS by organizing and performing in a charity event in New York City, as well as participating in the 2006 AIDS Walk, held May 21 in Central Park. The group's original goal was to raise $10,000. "I really was amazed at the way everything came together – people were always stepping forward to help out with whatever needed doing," said Angela Hamilton, the team's organizer and a 2002 CNU graduate. The AIDS Walk is a 10-kilometer walk to raise money for Gay Men's Health Crisis and other AIDS service organizations. So far, the 2006 walk has raised more than $6 million with more than 47,000 participants, according to the event website, http://aidswalknewyork2006.kintera.org Based on the amount of money raised, the CNU team, called Team Supersnack, is ranked second among "friends and family" teams and is in 23rd place overall out of 2,100 teams participating, according to Hamilton. Last year's Supersnack team raised more than $4,000 in the AIDS Walk, which placed it among the Top 100 teams out of 2,100 teams participating. "We got a late start the morning of the walk, and one of the team members, Caryn May, had a bus to catch, so she ended up running the last two-thirds of the walk because it was so important to her to finish the walk before she went home," said Hamilton, a Park Slope, Brooklyn, resident. "I thought that was amazing of her. We got the phone call from her an hour later that she'd finished, and it was a great motivator for the rest of us. It started to rain over the last quarter-mile of the walk, and we all just plugged right ahead, pulling up our hoodies and doing cheers to get us through the last bit. " CNU team members traveled from upstate New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Virginia, Chicago, and San Francisco to participate in the AIDS Walk. In addition, the 2006 team also organized a charity event that included music and sketch comedy at a lounge in the heart of the East Village. A raffle for a membership to The Museum of Modern Art was among the ways the group raised money at the event. |
"The venue manager said he was very impressed with the size of our audience – we had a very full house – and how smoothly the show ran. So that will definitely become a yearly event. It was also great to get all the support from back home – it really made a difference for us that, even if people couldn't donate, they took a moment to step forward and say they liked what we were doing," Hamilton said.
The team's other fundraising endeavors included performing in Central Park, selling clothing through their website (cafepress.com/supersnack) and manning fundraising tables at events in New York City and Chicago.
Other CNU graduates on the team include Kimberly Lee, Nikki Powers, Allison Allen, Mike Bland, Fred Arsenault, Greg Poljacik, Caryn May, Mike Raymond, Denise Santomauro, Melanie Jenkins, Rian Kerfoot, Lauren Kosteski, Adam Downs, Allen Brooks, Cash Arehart, Michael Gamache and Beth Atkins.
For more information about Team SuperSnack, to donate or to order SnackWear, visit www.skewedperspective.com/supersnack.
Christopher Newport University is a four-year public university in Newport News, Virginia. CNU enrolls 4,800 students in programs through its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Luter School of Business and offers great teaching, small classes and an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor. Visit us at www.cnu.edu.