VIP Event Caps Off IHeartBU Week

MISHAWAKA- Bethel Uni­ver­sity In­sti­tu­tional Ad­vance­ment Of­fice in­vited alumni and donors to a VIP event af­ter the men’s and wom­an’s bas­ket­ball games to cap­stone this year’s fundrais­ing event, IHeartBU week. 

The VIP event was a thank you to donors and a way to build en­gage­ment and par­tic­i­pa­tion with alumni.  

Emily Sher­wood, Di­rec­tor of Alumni Re­la­tions, said the fo­cus of the event was to en­cour­age alumni to tell their sto­ries and share why they love Bethel. It was also an op­por­tu­nity to give back to the school in honor of some­one who in­spired them. 

Ac­cord­ing to Sher­wood, there is no min­i­mum or max­i­mum gift.   

“We have re­ceived one-dol­lar do­na­tions, all the way up to $10,000 do­na­tions,” she said. 

This year’s goal was to raise up­wards of $25,000. With the help of more than four dozen donors, Bethel ex­ceeded that goal and raised more than $26,000.  

“These do­na­tions go to­wards schol­ar­ships and are giv­ing fu­ture stu­dents op­por­tu­ni­ties,” Sher­wood said. 

This VIP din­ner was not the only way Bethel Uni­ver­sity cel­e­brated this week. Donuts were shared with staff and fac­ulty through­out the week, and peo­ple across cam­pus were in­vited to hear why faith­ful donors, such as Brother Tim Erdel, have given back for years.  

Bethel fans and kids at­tend­ing the bas­ket­ball game re­ceived foam fin­gers and free T-shirts in honor of the cel­e­bra­tory week.