written by Lucy Armstrong, Hallie Menchin, and Jess Morrison

This semester there has been and will continue to be a greater focus on SAA’s philanthropic efforts, and our Philanthropy Chair, Jess Morrison ‘19, has done a great job so far with facilitating this process. Accordingly, I Love UMass Amherst Day, on February 15th from 10AM-2PM in the campus center, was a tremendous success.  For those who don’t know, I Love UMass day is an annual campus commemoration of scholastic excellence, student pride, and an overall shared love of maroon! Our simple mission is to say THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to the university.

On this day each year, students and faculty from all disciplines across campus are given the opportunity to craft an individual thank- you note to our generous alumni donors at our table in the campus center. As it turns out, over 700 thank-you notes were written by students and faculty in 4 hours! In order to get some further insight on I Love UMass Amherst Day and SAA’s current philanthropic goals, Jess Morrison has provided us with her inside perspective.

What do you love about I love UMass Amherst Day?

Jess: I Love UMass Amherst Day is the best day of the year for one of two reasons. The first reason is that we get to celebrate the best place in the world for the entire day. The second reason is that we get to write thank you notes to UMass donors who help make UMass the best place in the world.

What is the goal of I Love UMass Amherst Day?

Jess: “The goal of I Love UMass Amherst Day is to thank our donors for their support while enhancing school spirit and pride. We want UMass students to understand the importance of giving back to the school that we love.”

Why is I Love UMass Amherst Day important?

Jess: It’s important to have donors because not only do their donations provide things like scholarships and buildings, but the more donors we have, the higher UMass will be nationally ranked. It’s also important to increase and improve school spirit in order to improve the environment and attitude across campus.”

How was this year’s I Love UMass Amherst Day different from last year?

Jess: I Love UMass Amherst Day was different from last year because this year we promoted our event on Tuesday, February 14th by doing a mock “cash cab” using golf carts. We drove students to class as they answered UMass trivia to try and win prizes. Not to mention some of the prizes were UMass Pom-pom hats and UMass bakeshop cookies! We also were the only RSO in the whole campus center on that day.

“What else is on our philanthropic agenda this semester?”

Jess: Some of the events that the philanthropy committee will be working on in the future are senior tree planting, UMass Gives, and commencement ball. We have also started a new project called “Dive into a Donor” where we pick out a consistent university donor to personally thank and show our appreciation for – whether it’s a card, poster or picture, we want consistent donors to know we appreciate them.

Thank you Jess and the rest of the philanthropy for making this event possible, and of course thank you to all of our donors for allowing us to have the best possible UMass Amherst experience!