Thanks SO much to all of you who came out to our first meeting on Sunday night! Whether you’ve been involved in Atlas or you’re brand new, you all added to the energy in the room and it was so great to see all of you!! Read on so that you know what’s up with Atlas this week….
We are having a meeting specifically for new Atlas members this Wednesday night at 8pm! We will meet right outside of Sackett building (which is to the left of Old Main lawn if you’re facing the front of Old Main building) and then head into a room in Sackett. The meeting will introduce you guys to THON and Atlas a little more, help clear up any confusion and answer any questions anyone has…ALSO, it should be a good time : ) If you are a new Atlas member or still thinking about getting involved, you should definitely come to this meeting!
Atlas is having our 3rd annual tailgate with one of our THON families, the Smiths, this Saturday before the PSU vs. You! ngstown State football game! Since the game is at noon, the tailgate will be at 10am…yeah, it’s early, but there will be good food and it’ll be a great chance to hang out with people in Atlas AND the Smith family! If you plan on coming to the tailgate, please sign up on this google form https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFpWYXFVQlJfdXhtTFZMUkgwUkJvNkE6MQ ASAP so that we can get an idea of how much food to buy and how many people to expect!! If you sign up, please come to the HUB either Wednesday (tomorrow) between 12:30 - 2:30 OR Thursday between 12:30 - 2:30 to pay $4 for the tailgate (to cover the cost of food). Nina and/or Dave will be coll! ecting money at a table in the HUB on the same level as Panda ! Express, near the doors that exit to the HUB lawn. Look for a pink hat and an Atlas sign to find us! If you have any trouble finding us, just call/text Nina (610-724-9742) or Dave (215-280-7098)!
We’re going to the THON State College Spikes game together this Sunday, September 5th! The Smiths will be at the game as well and one of our THON children, Victoria Smith, will be throwing out the first pitch!! The game starts at 6:05 pm Sunday night and tickets cost $6. The two organizations that purchase the most tickets will have some of their members featured on the field for some fun! If you would like to come to the game with us, please sign up on this googl! e form https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFpWYXFVQlJfdXhtTFZMUkgwUkJvNkE6MQ ASAP so that we can order our tickets! (NOTE: This is the same google form as in #2…you do NOT need to fill it out twice.) Again, if you sign up, please come to the HUB either Wednesday (tomorrow) between 12:30 - 2:30 OR Thursday between 12:30 - 2:30 to pay for your ticket. Nina and Dave will also be collecting this money, so see #2 above for more details.
One of our THON families, the Smiths, still need our help! Matt Smith’s back is injured and Steph Smith is recovering from wrist surgery, so they need help carrying their daughter Victoria upstairs for bed at night. The Smiths live only 15 minutes away by car. If you can help out any evening, please e-mail me back letting me know!! The Smiths really! appreciate our help and they love seeing us!
Just a! heads u p — there will NOT be an Atlas meeting this Sunday, September 5th because we’ll be at the Spikes game instead! So if you decide to come to 102 Forum anyway on Sunday night, you will be lonely : (
As I mentioned in my last e-mail, our former executive chair, Dan Levy, is trying to get the word out about the textbook rental company www.Chegg.com! If 500 books are rented using the code “NITTANY", Chegg will give Dan $750 to donate to the organization of his choice — Atlas! As one last final push, Dan’s asking you guys to send the following message to friends in other student organizations, clubs, or at other universities:
"Hey guys! Take a look at www.Chegg.com instead of the bookstore for your textbooks! Renting your books from ! Chegg can save you up to 50% and every time a book is rented, a tree is planted to offset the impact of textbooks! If you use the code “NITTANY” this semester, you save an extra 5% on your total order (even if you don’t go to Penn State!) and Atlas receives a generous donation!"
If you guys could just copy and paste that into a simple facebook message to friends, Dan would really, really appreciate it!
That’s it! You’ve made it to the end of this e-mail, wooo! I really hope to see a bunch of our new members tomorrow night at the new members meeting and a ton of you all this weekend at the tailgate and Spikes game!! As always, just let me know if you have any questions!
Meg
Hey guys!
I just wanted to remind everyone that our first Atlas meeting of the year is tonight, Sunday, August 29th at 8pm in 102 Forum! The meeting should be a lot of fun and we’re really looking forward to everyone getting together again and to all of the new faces we’re expecting! The meeting shouldn’t be too long so please come out if you can make it!
I can’t wait to see you all soon!!
Meg
On behalf of Atlas’s new executive board, I would just like to say thank you for electing us to our positions! We are so, so excited to work with all of you this year to make Atlas better than ever! We have a bunch of fun stuff going on in the next few weeks so read on:
Atlas committees are already getting things started for next year! I encourage all of you to come to a committee meeting (or several!) to be a part of all of the awesome things they are doing! Committees are also a great way to get to know Atlas-ers better and to take on leadership roles. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t a part of the committee before, we would love for you to stop by and get involved! The following committees are meeting this week right outside of Sackett building:
The Donor Relations committee is having a seniors only meeting on Monday, April 26 at 8:30 p.m. to get an idea of how our future alumni would like to continue their involvement in Atlas. We would really like to improve our alumni relations this year and we need your help, seniors! Here’s our Facebook event.
Victoria Smith is turning eight, and Atlas is lucky enough to celebrate with her! We are having a birthday party with Victoria on Sunday, April 25! We’ll be having a Blue & White-themed cookout (in honor of Blue & White weekend) at the Smith’s house from about 5-8 p.m. If you would like to come, please sign-up (and offer to bring something to eat if you can!) here by this Friday! The Smiths live less than 15 minutes away, so please sign up to drive if you can!
Atlas is hanging out at Whipple Dam this Sunday, April 18 and it’s going to be a ton of fun! We will be leaving from Atherton Hall at 12:30 p.m. If you haven’t already signed up, please sign-up here by this Wednesday (4/14)! Again, we’re always in need of drivers!
A friend of an Atlas member, Sam Moore, is 13 years old and fighting pediatric brain cancer. Please take just a few minutes out of your day to write a quick message to Sam on his online page. As Atlas members, part of our job is to emotionally support families fighting pediatric cancer, and Sam’s family really appreciates everyone’s support! Sam is a hockey player and loves sports! Here is the Facebook event for more information, and the link to Sam’s page is in the event description.
THON is sponsoring a PSU baseball game vs. Pitt tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 6:05 p.m.! Tickets are only $2, and all sales will be donated to THON 2011! It’s also $1 Nacho night, so you don’t want to miss out! If you’re interested in going with Atlas, e-mail our Special Events Chair, Ben, bgranatt@gmail.com.
The first annual Beaver Stadium 5K benefiting the Special Olympics of PA is on Sunday, April 25th at 10 a.m. Runners begin at the BJC and end racing through the tunnel of Beaver Stadium and out onto the football field! Ryan Staloff is getting an Atlas group together to do the 5K, so if you’re interested in participating, email Ryan at ryanstaloff@gmail.com.
Atlas is sponsoring our last blood drive of the year on April 22 in the HUB. Last blood drive there were not enough units donated so the Red Cross is in desperate need for blood. If you can donate, please do so. You can sign up online or by emailing Ben at bgranatt@gmail.com with the time you can donate. Also, if you can volunteer to help at the blood drive, email Ben with a time you can work.
That’s all for now! I really hope you all can make it out to a lot of these events coming up. The official THON season is over in February, but Atlas never sleeps! Take advantage of all there is to do in these last few weeks, keep meeting new people and have a ton of fun while doing so!
We are sponsoring our last blood drive of the year on Thursday, April 22 in the HUB. During the last blood drive there were not enough units donated, so the Red Cross is in desperate need for blood. If you can donate please please please do so. You can sign up online and signing up or by emailing Kevin Swanson with the time you can donate. Also, if you can volunteer to help at the blood drive email Kevin with a time you can work.
We also need people to help advertise the blood drive on Tuesday, April 13 in the HUB from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you can be in the HUB to help hand out fliers during any of this time please let Kevin know. We must have people working this table.
This Sunday at 8 p.m. in 10 Sparks we will be having our first meeting for THON 2011! The new executive board is getting started right away and wants to get things moving for THON 2011 ASAP. They have some truly amazing ideas, so get excited and I’ll see you Sunday night.
Relay for Life is taking place tomorrow (Friday) at 5 p.m. until Saturday at 5 p.m.! It is going to be an awesome 24 hours so feel free to stop by and hang out for as long as you’d like. Everything will be happening at the Agricultural Fields on Orchard Road. The fields are across from the Joe Pa statue by the stadium. Just call me (215-518-1637) or Brandon (305-775-1903) if you can’t find us. I’ll see you there!
Alright guys, this is my final blog post as President. I say it a lot, but I want to thank you one more time for making this past year one that I’ll never forget. Not only did Atlas grow as an organization, but we also grew as a team and a lot of us grew as individuals. That’s not a result of me or anyone on the executive board… it’s because of each and every one of you (that sounds really cheesy, but I do truly mean it). Thanks again, from all of us on the executive board.
Let’s now look forward to the coming year. I’m sure that you, like me, have looked back at this year and wished you did more. Maybe you didn’t go canning the first few weekends because you were nervous, maybe you didn’t send quite as many THONvelopes out as you could have, or maybe you didn’t get to know the families as well as you were hoping you would. Whatever the case may be, I urge you to look back on the year and think of a few specific things that you wish you would have done or done differently this past year.
After you do that, I challenge you to set a goal for yourself for THON 2011. It could be anything: go on all four canning weekends, send at least 30 THONvelopes, create and/or run a fundraiser, get to know the families better, be a mentor to a freshman, raise a certain amount, whatever. Set a difficult but attainable goal, and do every possible thing you can (legally, of course) to reach that goal. Don’t let anyone else stop you from reaching it, either. If you want to send 30 THONvelopes, make time for it. If you want to get to know the families better, don’t sit around waiting for them to come to you, be proactive and schedule visits with Family Relations to visit them.
Something I’m doing is writing down my goal and keeping it on my desk so I’m constantly reminded of it—maybe that’s something you want to do too. Just please, please don’t let time go to waste next year, it happens far too often and too many people miss out. I want everyone to feel the joy you get when playing with Victoria, Claire, Will, or Gabe; to feel the excitement that you get when you get a THONvelope check in the mail; to have the pride that comes from seeing your fundraiser happen and become successful; or from knowing that your nine hours of standing on an intersection was worth it when you raise thousands of dollars in a single day. We only get one life to live, so let’s all make sure to take advantage of every second we get!
This coming year has unlimited possibilities. The new executive board is going to blow away this past year’s executive board, just as this year’s team is going to be far better than last year’s team. That’s how it’s supposed to be, and it makes me excited to help the team reach new heights in THON 2011.
Don’t hold back anything this year. Challenge yourself, work hard, and give THON 2011 everything you’ve got!
Whipple Dam visit on April 18 in the afternoon: Sign up here.
Executive board feedback survey: Please fill out as much of this as you’d like by Sunday, April 4 at 5 p.m. It will help the new executive board better cater to everyone’s needs and wants, and it will help everyone on the old executive board grow as individuals and as leaders.
Relay for Life is coming up quickly! It begins next Friday at 5 p.m., and it will go until Saturday at 5 p.m. (24 hours total). We could always use more people to hang out and have fun with, so if you want to be a part of this awesome event just sign up. (Click here and search for team name “Atlas".) Everyone in the Relay committee has been working hard to make this event extremely fun for everyone, so come join us for an amazing 24 hours!
Seniors, I know that you want to stay a part of Atlas even after you graduate and I know you want to know what’s going on with Atlas as long as you live. I just wanted to let you know that the new exec board, specifically through DR Co-Chairs Chris Daly and Jason Harmon, is making sure to put Alumni Relations as a top priority because they know how much you all mean to Atlas. Chris and Jason have some great ideas for how to keep you guys involved, so please be on the lookout for emails regarding alumni relations.
I’ve attached the full and final list of donors we had this year. (See email.) The list includes check, online, and corporate donations, so if you want to make sure you thanked everyone you sent an email, THONvelope, or corporate packet to feel feel to check the list for those names. For corporate packets, Zach and Brandon already sent a thank you note, so don’t feel pressured to send anything out. If you know the person personally, though, it would be nice to know that they donated so you can thank them the next time you see them. Again, when you’ve sent your thank you notes out, please email me to let me know so I can check you off of the list.
I wanted to tell you all about a club I’ve recently joined that our SE Chair Ben is actually a founding member of. The club is called the Clown Nose Club, and its mission is to spread happiness through unconventional, positive social risk taking. For example, at the last meeting the President, Chad, had everyone text 5 people in their phone and say “Hey, I hope you have a great night!", had us make thank you cards for people we don’t know (e.g., writing “Thanks a lot, we appreciate everything you do” and putting it on your tray when you put it on the conveyor belt so that the person cleaning your tray reads it), and had us introduce ourselves to other people in the club to make new friends. This is something that I am positive a lot of you would enjoy, so if you’re interested, come to their next meeting—next Wednesday (the 7th) at 7:30 p.m. in 111 Chambers. To learn more about the club please visit their Web site.
Elaine Tanella, this past year’s Atlas Merch Co-Captain, is the Communications Overall for THON 2011 Elaine has been kicking butt for Atlas for three years now and truly deserves the position she’s earned. I’m sure she is going to be amazing as the Communications Overall this coming year. Feel free to congratulate her at: e.tanella@gmail.com!
One of our members, Rob Nellis, has put together the Lactic Acid 5K to benefit the Penn State Triathlon Club’s trip to Nationals, as well as future races they have. The cost is $15 and the race begins at 10 a.m. Honestly, it is going to be a really nice day outside on Saturday, and I know that Rob has worked really hard to put this race together. If you have the time, please support Rob and the Triathlon Club and run (or walk with Meg and I) the Lactic Acid 5K. The pre-race festivities are taking place at the Penn State Visitor’s Center, which is by Beaver Stadium and across from the Joe Paterno statue. If you get lost, need directions, or just have a general question about the race, just give Rob a call (412-551-4044) or shoot him an email at: rwn5026@psu.edu.
Have an amazing weekend (the weather is supposed to be awesome), and to those of you celebrating the holiday on Sunday, Happy Easter!
Thank you to everyone who came to the meeting and voted! I really mean that. It was a long meeting and the old and new exec boards and I appreciate you taking the time to shape Atlas’ future. The 2011 Atlas Executive Board members are…
Congrats to the nine of them and to the rest of Atlas for electing such an amazing group of people!
Atlas is headed to Whipple Dam on April 18! In case you don’t know, Whipple Dam is a park-like place where you can play sports, rent paddle boats, grill food, etc. If you want to come with us, please sign up as soon as possible. Sign-up here. If you can’t bring anything, sign up at the bottom of the list (you’ll see where to mark your name). Remember to sign up to drive if you can!!
Every year at the end of their term, the executive board sends a feedback survey to the team to learn how they did during the year. I created one for this past executive board, and I would really appreciate you filling it out completely and honestly. It’s 13 questions long, with a comment box for each question. You can fill out as much or as little as you want, and no question is required. The survey is also completely anonymous, so please be brutally honest. We use the information you provide to help next year’s executive board, and also to help the old executive members grow as leaders. Go to the survey.. Thanks a lot, I really mean it!
Please send out your thank you notes as soon as possible! It is extremely important to send them out, especially for when you send THONvelopes to the same people next year. Remember to email me back when you’ve sent them out so I can mark you off the list. Thanks a lot!
Message from Cait Moffitt, an Atlas member who is abroad right now: Hey guys can you vote for this? Watch the YouTube video. It’s so sad. She is a teacher at Wissahickon high school that my friends attended. It’s really sad, but please vote! You can vote everyday!
This is a video that was created by Ms. Erin Curtis. She is a loving young woman who had to go through more than any person should ever have to go through. After losing two of her three children to Leukemia, Erin was devastated. The thing that kept her going was her son, Calvin, and her supporters that included family, friends, co-workers, and students. She created the organization, Erin’s Dream, that would support families that were in situations like her own, with sick or terminally ill children. She is now part of a competition sponsored by Pepsi and the winner gets $250,000 of funding for their organization. She needs all the votes and support that she can get and by taking 10 seconds out of your day you can all help. You can vote once a day until the end of the competition, so please take that 10 seconds and make a difference. Vote here. Thank you everyone!
As always, if you have any questions about anything please feel free to email, call, or text. I’ll probably send out one or maybe two more emails, but then Meg will be the one sending the emails! Please make sure to fill out the executive board feedback survey… it will really mean a lot to both the new and old executive boards.
Thanks again for coming to the election meeting tonight and helping begin a new chapter for Atlas!
Thanks to everyone who has sent me pictures for the slideshow. I didn’t reply to your emails (I’m sorry), but I have gotten the pictures and really appreciate you sending them. I still need more pictures though, so please keep sending me as many as you can! I really don’t want to go through Facebook to get everyone’s pictures (especially because I’m not Facebook friends with everyone and therefore won’t be able to get everyone on the slideshow), so send me, Dan Levy, as many pictures as possible please. Thanks.
There was something wrong with the Google form for the Atlas banquet on Thursday and Friday, but it is fixed and the form is up and running now. Please fill it out as soon as possible. The sooner they are filled out, the sooner we’ll know how many people are coming and the sooner we can order the correct quantities of everything. If you want to come to the banquet you must fill out the form by monday at 5 p.m. I’m serious about this deadline, so please sign up by Monday at 5 p.m. (although sooner than that would be better).
Meg or I will be in Atherton Hall Tuesday night (3/16) from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the main lobby to collect money ($20 per person) for the banquet. The executive board will also be in the HUB on Wednesday from noon to 3 p.m. right next to the main doors on the Panda Express level (right under the big clock). Just give me a call if you can’t find us (215-518-1637). Thanks!
If you accidentally completed the ANGEL survey and not the Google one, please contact me, Dan Levy, and fill out the Google form by Tuesday at 10 p.m.
We need sophomore and freshman speakers who want to talk at the banquet about their experience this year. You can talk about what your first THON was like, what you remember about your first year in Atlas, how Atlas has affected you this year, etc. If you’re interested in speaking please let me know by Monday at 5 p.m. Whether you know you definitely want to speak or you’re just entertaining the thought of it, please just shoot me an email or give me a call so we can talk about it. You worked your butts off this year, so I really want to hear about what you thought of Atlas as a freshman or sophomore.
Remember, the meeting for people interested in running for an Atlas executive position at the end of the month is going to be held this Tuesday, March 16, at 8:30 p.m. in the GFC in Atherton.
If you want to be a part of one of Atlas’ Relay for Life teams this year, you must email Brandon Leibowitz by Friday, March 12, at 5 p.m. Please specify whether you’re interested in being the team captain or simply want to participate and have a good time! Once we have a full list of team members, we’ll get things rolling and get ready for a successful Relay!
The banquet survey is finally up and running! If you plan on coming to the banquet (which everyone should), fill out the survey by this Sunday, March 14, at 11 p.m. Remember, we really are encouraging you to ask your parents to come so that they can see the amazing organization you’re a part of. The banquet will be held on Saturday, March 20, from noon to 4 p.m. and will cost $20 per person (trust me though, it will be worth it).
We also are asking for anyone interested in speaking at the banquet for a few minutes to email me back and let me know. We speak enough! We want people from each year (freshman through senior) to speak about their thoughts on the year, how they were impacted by Atlas this year, their greatest accomplishment or favorite moment with Atlas, etc. There! is a lo t of freedom to speak about what you’d like to, so if you’re interested in giving a speech email me back and let me know what you’d like to speak about. If there are too many people who want to speak, the exec board will have to decide who gets to speak. I hope that you understand… We can’t have too many people speak, but we don’t want to choose who will speak right now. Rather, we want to give you the opportunity to let us know that you want to speak and what you want to speak about.
If you have any questions about the banquet feel free to ask!
The pre-election meeting will be held on March 16 at 8:30 p.m. in the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton Hall. Whether you’re seriously considering running or you just want to learn about what we do, feel free to come to the meeting. If you are running for a position, though, this meeting is required. Directions: If you’re coming from the College Ave side, go up the stairs when you walk in, make a right and the room will be on your left. If you’re coming from the White Building side, make a left when you walk in and the room will be on your left.
I need more pictures from the year for this slideshow! Please, if you have any pictures from any events this year, send them to me so I can put them in the slideshow. I’m not going through people’s Facebooks to get pictures, so please send me files with pictures! If you can, send them by this Friday, March 12.
On March 20th, from noon to 4 p.m. Atlas will be having its first ever banquet! We’ll be having a nice lunch, giving out some awards, listening to some speeches, and dancing! It’s the first time we’ve ever done this, and we really expect it to be an amazing event. The cost will be about $15 per person, and we will have HUB hours the week we get back from break to collect money. Both of our families are coming to this, and we also encourage you to ask your parents if they’d like to come as well. We want them to see the amazing group that you’ve become a part of and to see what you’ve been putting in so much effort for. I’m going to put up an ANGEL survey for everyone to fill out once we know the exact price (probably this Friday). If you want to come to the banquet, you must fill out the survey by next Friday (3/12). I’ll send out an email letting you know that I’ve put the survey up. Get excited for the banquet—it is going to be amazing!
If you are considering running for one of the exec board positions, we will be having a meeting during the week we get back from break that you are required to attend. At the meeting, each current exec board member will go over what they do for the team, specifically what happens behind the scenes and what makes the job both difficult and rewarding. We also want you to talk to the current chair of whatever position(s) you’re thinking about running for so that you have a better idea of what they do. I’ll send an email with the exact day of the meeting, but it will probably be around 8 p.m. in Atherton Hall so keep your schedule as flexible as possible please.
You will also be required to fill out an application if you plan to run for any positions. Those will go out after the meeting we have the week we get back…
Also, please do not be intimidated or think that you are not up to the challenge of being an exec board member, regardless of your year or how long you’ve been in Atlas. I truly believe in all of you and think that no matter who wins the elections, Atlas is in good hands next year. I ran for an exec board position when I was a freshman and being on the exec board my sophomore year really prepared me for this year (it also was a lot of fun!). If you’re interested in talking about it just contact us and we’ll be happy to talk to you!
We are putting together a slideshow with pictures and videos from the entire year! If you have any pictures or videos you want in the slideshow, please send them to me, Dan Levy, as soon as possible. Pictures from canning, social events, family events, etc. are perfect! But please do not use any pictures showing red cups, milk & cookies, or anything like that. If you want to use pictures from the formal or another “wet” social, make sure they’re appropriate. Basically, just use your common sense. I trust you all… except Staloff.
This year Atlas is sponsoring a Relay for Life team! Just because THON is over, that doesn’t mean we’re not a team. We really could make this event amazing and memorable if we put good effort into it. Our team will be 100% supported by Atlas and the exec board, but we want someone who is interested in making Atlas a part of Relay to become the team captain. This would be an awesome job and with so many great leaders on the team, I’m sure our Relay team will be great! Relay for Life is on April 10, so things need to get moving quickly. If you want to be the team captain or want to be a part of the Atlas Relay for Life team, just email Brandon Leibowitz!
Sadly Jacob Budin, Atlas’s Web developer, is graduating this semester. That means that we’ll need someone to take over as our Web guru after he graduates. If you know HTML/CSS, PHP, and SQL and would like to be the next Web guru, email me, Dan Levy, back to let me know. We could also split up the job, with one person running the website, one running our Twitter, etc. The possibilities are endless, so feel free to email me back with your ideas!
As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or thoughts!
We are having a meeting this Sunday night at 8 p.m. in 10 Sparks. Oh you thought we were done for the year? Not a chance! Be prepared for some awesome events in the next few months with Atlas! At this Sunday’s meeting we’ll reminisce about THON weekend and celebrate our accomplishments from the year, so please make it out to Sparks on Sunday night. We may have some leftovers from THON weekend, even if I’m not sure they’re still good at this point.
UPUA is holding a fund-raiser tomorrow (Friday, 2/26) night to raise money for Jon Quigley’s memorial bench. They will be selling late night snacks from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. Saturday morning! They’ll have pretzels ($1), nachos ($3), water bottles ($1), and hot dogs ($2), so please stop by and enjoy some late night food with them!
And I have to put it in here… Please be safe this weekend. Everyone wants to have fun but just remember to be safe in whatever you do.