Falcon Giving Day coming up

Yahoo

11-02-2025

Feb. 10—University of Texas Permian Basin is set to host its fifth annual Falcon Giving Day running from 1 p.m. Feb. 13 to 1 p.m. Feb. 14.
The kickoff is at 1 p.m. Feb. 13 in the Student Activity Center. At the ceremony, UTPB President Sandra Woodley and Daniel Bright from The Sewell Family of Companies will say a few words about the importance of the community being involved with the university.
"We will have a live call center that will be going on. We've invited many students, staff and faculty to attend. This morning (Feb. 6), someone brought up the idea of bringing in alumni to partake in the fun," Director of Annual Giving Jorge Payen said.
Bright is also a UTPB graduate and advocate for the university.
The Sewell Family of Companies has offered a $50,000 challenge towards the Champions Fund and athletics.
Contributions to the Champions Fund go toward scholarships, equipment, travel, and other key resources, ensuring UTPB teams have everything they need to compete and succeed, the school's website said.
Three-dimensional hearts created in the UTPB MakerSpace at the library will be hidden around campus for students to find.
"We do that to get our students involved in Falcon Giving Day, apart from becoming an ambassador, donating and such. ... It gives us a new avenue in which we can talk to them and educate them what it means to be philanthropic, and grow that passion as they work through the university, as well as post graduation," Payen said.
"Our alumni base should be one of our strongest donors, and so that's what we're trying to accomplish," he added.
New this year is the profit share night at Raising Cane's which will run from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 13. Anyone who mentions they are with Falcon Day or UTPB, a portion will come back to the university.
"They have a lot of profit share nights throughout all of their stores. ... We were fortunate enough to get this one ...," Payen said.
Everyone involved is looking forward to Falcon Giving Day.
"We're having a blast. We're getting ready for it. We're excited about it. Not only is this a great opportunity for us to be able to reach the community, but also tell our stories and tell our students' stories. We've been talking to a lot of our students. A lot of our students are taking part in Falcon Giving Day like the kickoff video and a lot of our social media posts just telling us about their stories and their memories here at UTPB, which is exactly what we want to tell our community," Payen said.
The official Giving Day video is something new that they are testing out to help tell stories in a more genuine way.
They had students write a letter to the university as though it was a family member talking about their fondest memories at the school, how they enjoyed attending UTPB and how it changed their lives, Payen said.
Vice President for Community Engagement and Partnerships Jacqui Gore said this is another way for UTPB to get the community involved in supporting students and the "great outcomes that we produce each and every year.
"Most of our graduates go to work right here in the Permian Basin. We want to encourage the community to support these students. Any contribution is welcome, whether it's $5 or $500; you can make a difference in these students' lives," Gore said.
There are different aspects of the university people can donate to.
"When you go to the Falcon Giving Day site, you can select which area of the university you would like to support. You could select athletics; you could select scholarship funds — just a general scholarship fund; the food pantry; the emergency fund for students who are going through something unexpected; the president's priorities, or one of the various colleges, like health sciences, engineering, education. We really want to help the community pinpoint how they want to support UT Permian Basin with their contributions," Gore said.
People can donate to the university in general.
"If someone would really like to earmark their dollars for something in particular, we can help them do that. If someone isn't interested in giving online, they can reach out and we're happy to meet them if they would rather write a check. That would be great also," Gore said.
People may call the Advancement Office to set up a donation at 432-552-2800. If someone wants to mail a contribution, they can send it to 4901 E. University Blvd., Odessa, TX 79762 and make it attention the Advancement Office.
"Within the next seven to 10 days after we complete Falcon Giving Day, we can announce our grand total, but we'll have a really good idea by end of day on the 14th, where we are," Gore said.
She added that it's important that UTPB put a face on the giving campaign. There was a check presentation earlier the week of Feb. 2 of $8,000 to the UTPB Band program from businessman Jim Woodcock.
"It's important to us that our donors see the students that they're impacting. Really, that's what we're trying to do with Falcon Giving Day and highlighting our students. It's more than just writing a check, you're helping these particular individuals. I think that was really moving to Mr. Woodcock earlier this week to see the students who played a tune for him there in person; those are the students he's contributing to. He's able to help them in real time. Those dollars will immediately go to purchasing equipment and helping with scholarship dollars. If anybody wants to come onto campus and meet some of these students, we encourage the community to join us for the kickoff at 1 p.m. on Feb. 13. That would be a great way to meet a lot of our students. We have a number of students who will be joining us," Gore said.
Community, faculty members, staff and students are all invited to participate in Falcon Giving Day.
"The students are excited to get involved, because they see the dollars coming in to help their programs and to help them as individuals. Many of the students are letting Jorge know that they want to help because they're seeing the impact that these donors are making," Gore said.
She added that we are very blessed to live in the Permian Basin with its thriving economy.
"We have a problem that most places in the country don't have. We have many jobs available and not enough workforce to fill those jobs. These are the individuals who are going to fill the jobs — UTPB students. They're getting their education so that they can go right into the Permian Basin workforce. The more help we can get for these students to continue their education and gain the skills and the knowledge they need, they can go right to work for you here in the community. That's why we're asking the community to support these students. This is their future workforce," Gore said.