Two student involvement opportunities present before student government

At Wednesday’s Student Government meeting, senators heard presentations from Mavathon and Maverick Involvement Team (MIT).

The Mavathon presentation was given by students Morgan Rusler, President of the Panhellenic Council, and Brock Routh, who has an executive position in Mavathon. Mavathon is a year-round, student-run fundraising effort that supports the Children’s Miracle Network, specifically Gillette Children’s Hospital.

“It’s been a longstanding tradition here. It started back like in the 80s and 90s. COVID hit us hard and made it difficult to have the same kind of event that we used to have pre-COVID,” Rusler said. “But this year, we are hoping to bring it back to what it used to be, getting a lot more people involved and bringing the families back on campus for this event.”

Children’s Miracle Network helps provide healthcare for millions of patients with a wide range of health problems. Rusler said CMN, since its founding in the 1980s, has raised over 5 billion for 170 hospitals to support research and uncompensated healthcare.

“Contributions to Gillette provide help to families who may not be able to afford the healthcare their children need,” Rusler said. “Funds also support research and services, or medical equipment not covered by insurance.”

Mavathon events offer a variety of entertainment, such as dancing, petting zoo and caricature. Free food is always provided.

“We’ve also had some of the kids that are benefiting from all the money raised come along with the rest of their families to see all the good work that’s been done,” Rusler said.

Mavathon encourages the creation of fundraising teams. The bigger the fundraising team, the higher their fundraising goal. Awards are given to the best fundraising efforts. Award winners get a ticket into the Mavathon celebration event, as well as free T-shirts, food, and other items.

“If you are part of a different RSO, please, make a team. It would be great. It all goes to a really great cause. It’s a ton of fun,” Rusler said.

Students can sign up to be involved in Mavathon via Donor Drive at https://events.dancemarathon.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=5960

Student Activities staff member Michelle Harvey told senators about the Maverick Involvement Team. 

“It is really a catalyst to get students involved here on campus. We want to prepare students to be leaders, and a great way of doing that is getting them involved,” Harvey said. “So, our mission is to educate and cultivate the next generation of leaders that are going to go out and transform their communities.”

Harvey recognized that students are involved in various student groups and encouraged them to continue being involved in these groups.

“I like to think of Maverick Involvement Team as a foundation or the backbone structure to help the involvement stuff happen outside the classroom,” she said.

MIT has been taking advantage of MavCentral as a new tool to help them reach their goals. MavCentral helps MIT collect the data they need, such as what student events are happening and how many RSOs are active on campus. It also provides a user-friendly environment.

MIT helps RSOs get approved at the beginning of each academic year. Harvey said the new aspect this year is that MIT hosts monthly leadership events for RSOs on the first Friday at noon.

“We know that not everybody can come to us, so we’ve also created some YouTube channels,” Harvey said. “MavCentral has a playlist for how-to videos, and then we also have a playlist of other leader trainings that we have done throughout the years that we’ve recorded in webinar style.”

MIT also offers leadership training for individuals, not just RSOs. At the end of each year, leadership awards are handed out.

MavCentral as well as MIT’s Instagram page @InvolvedMavsMNSU are ways that more information about this student organization can be accessed.

Header photo: Mavathon and Maverick Involvement Team gave presentations in support of the Children’s Miracle Network, specifically Gillette Children’s Hospital for fundraising efforts. (Nathanael Tilahun/The Reporter)

Write to Tracy Swartzendruber at tracy.swartzendruber@mnsu.edu