Looking ahead to UWL’s fifth annual giving day, Oct. 15 16

Looking ahead to UWL's fifth-annual giving day, Oct. 15-16

Join us Oct. 15 and 16 for One Day for UWL, the university's fifth-annual day of giving.

On One Day, the entire UWL community comes together to make gifts to all areas of campus and celebrate the impact philanthropy has on students.

With many ways to participate on campus and online, we hope you'll join us as we Live Maroon and Give Maroon!

WHAT: One Day for UWL, our largest philanthropic event of the year

WHEN: Oct. 15 and 16, from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m.

WHERE: On campus and online; learn more at uwlax.edu/go/givingday

WHY: Donors are the reason we can offer scholarships, unique academic programs, undergraduate research opportunities, and many other advancement efforts that support student success. One Day for UWL is our largest philanthropic event each year, and we are excited to grow the tradition!

Make a gift

There are more 250 areas on campus you can support - from academic programs to sports clubs to scholarships. Support your passion on One Day for UWL by visiting uwlax.edu/go/givingday.

Top the Tower

Our goal for 2024 is to Top the Tower Every Hour by raising $7,689 each hour of One Day. This number represents the number of bricks comprising Hoeschler Tower - a place of lore, tradition and gathering on campus.

Get involved

Consider becoming an ambassador for One Day for UWL! It takes a community to create a successful event, and we could use your help to spread the word. Top ambassadors will have a donation made in their name to a campus cause of their choosing. Visit uwlax.edu/go/givingdayfor more information.

Celebrate on campus

Join us for on-campus festivities, including:

• Ring In One Day | Oct. 15, 8:45 a.m. | Hoeschler Tower
  • Let's get the celebration started and Ring in One Day for UWL at Hoeschler Tower! Special music with the UWL Screaming Eagles, a guest speaker, free noisemakers, and so much more. Show you're #UWLProud by wearing maroon and gray. We hope to see you there!

• Lunch on the Lawn | Oct. 15, 12 p.m. | Wittich Lawn
  • Join us on the Wittich Lawn for free walking tacos (while supplies last) and learn how our whole campus is impacted by philanthropy of all levels. This lunch is made possible through the generosity of donors.

• Ring Out One Day | Oct. 16, 8:45 a.m. | Hoeschler Tower
  • After 24 hours of celebrating and fundraising, let's Ring Out One Day together! Enjoy special music, a guest speaker, snacks and more. We'll even announce the initial amount raised during One Day. We hope you'll join us!

For Simones, '14, supporting his alma mater 'feels only right'

UWL is many things to Sam Simones.

It's the university he always wanted to attend - and the only one he applied to.

It's where he built the foundation for his successful career in financial planning and wealth management.

And it's where he continues to support the cross-country team that meant so much to him, first as a student-athlete and now as an alumnus.

"My experience at UWL was everything I thought and hoped for it to be and then some," says Simones, who earned his bachelor's degree in finance, with a concentration in risk, insurance and financial planning, in 2014. "The rich tradition of success for both the cross-country and track programs was my initial attraction, but also: Find me a better small town in the United States than La Crosse, Wisconsin. I also think that in today's world of rapidly increasing cost of college education, it's hard to beat the value/cost ratio UWL offers."

Simones credits a financial planning internship he completed in college for jumpstarting his career as a private wealth advisor for the Minneapolis-based Erpelding Wealth Management.

He also co-owns Legends Living LLC, a residential real estate company that mainly provides housing for college students. He purchased his first rental - a house he had lived in while attending UWL - about a year after graduating.

In ways big and small, Simones says, UWL remains a part of his everyday life.

"All of my best friends in the world are people I met at UWL," he says. "We follow the cross-country and track programs religiously and are discussing the results of every meet for both teams. I attend the occasional UWL football and basketball game. I also stay connected by providing housing to many UWL students. I enjoy doing showings with new prospective tenants and sharing my passion for UWL and La Crosse in general."

Simones has frequently shown his support during One Day for UWL, the university's annual day of giving. He feels it's important to support the cross-country program, citing its relatively small roster and alumni base - but more importantly, the impact it has had on his life.

"With all the program has given to me in the form of memories, experience and lifelong friendships, I feel it is only right to give back to it," Simones says. "With as busy and preoccupied as life is, and with as many worthy causes as there are to give funds to, it would be easy for a year to go by and not give, if not for the organized effort and urgency the One Day for UWL provides. It means there's an opportunity to give back to something that has given me so much."

Reflecting on 5 years of One Day for UWL

During One Day for UWL Oct. 15 and 16, the university will celebrate its fifth-annual giving day.

To date, the event has generated more than 6,000 donations totaling nearly $1.3 million, supporting student success and touching every corner of campus.

Taylor Wilmoth, development officer for the UWL Alumni & Friends Foundation, and formerly the assistant director for strategic engagement, spearheaded the creation and organization of the event in its first four years. She watched it grow with each new iteration, and is now handing the reins to Lauren Wanders, the Foundation's annual giving coordinator.

Wilmoth took a moment to reflect on how far the event has come, answering five questions as we mark five years of One Day for UWL.

Q: How did One Day for UWL originate?

A: The idea of giving days or 24 hours of giving was a big push that started in the early 2000s. It's really just another pillar in the overall annual giving strategy. I was talking to my supervisor at the time, Jeff Meyer, and we decided we were in a strong enough position to take this on. More than that, we were in the pandemic and looking for a way to bring people together to support students. I did a ton of research to see what other schools had done, and I learned a lot from them. Initially, we set a goal of 250 donors, which we later bumped up to 500. We ended up smashing that goal, with more than 1,200 people donating on our inaugural giving day. That's when we knew this could really be successful at UWL, and that our community was ready for it.

Q: How have you seen One Day for UWL evolve?

A:We've changed small things like the date and the motto, moving away from Giving Tuesday in December and adopting the One Day for UWL name and the Live Maroon motto. We've also changed a few big things. First, as the event grew, more donors and more areas of campus have become involved, and so people can support the area that is most important to them. Second, coming out of the pandemic and returning to campus in 2022, we were really excited to create a campus presence involving faculty, staff and students during One Day as we continue to build a culture of philanthropy. Third, we've continued to build the digital presence with videos, graphics and social media engagement. We've also improved our systems to make it easier for donors to make a monthly gift, give to multiple areas at one time, or make a gift through payment services like Venmo or PayPal.

Q: What aspect of One Day for UWL are you most proud of?

A:I'm really proud of the way the campus community and our alumni and friends have jumped right on board. They quickly realized this was a fun and great opportunity to support areas of campus they care about. We didn't know how successful we would be in that first year, and that comes with risk. But there have been so many people on campus who have worked together to make this event what it's become, and the support has been incredible.

Q: What would you like to say to those who have supported One Day for UWLin the past, or who plan to do so in the future?

A:I'm so grateful for our alumni, parents, faculty, staff and students who bought into this early. I want them to know that their generosity really does make a difference, as UWL relies heavily on philanthropy to give students an outstanding experience. I also want people to know that this event is for anyone who loves UWL - regardless of how much you're able to give. You can give $5 or $10 to the club you were a part of, to the library where you spent countless hours studying, or in honor of a beloved staff or faculty member. You can sponsor a match or challenge gift and rally your classmates to join in on One Day. There's a lot of freedom in it, and you can make it personal. That's what's so special about it.

Q: Finally, what does One Day for UWL mean to you?

A:There are lots of different annual events that come to mind when we think of UWL: athletics, commencement, the start of the school year. One Day for UWL has become another one of those major events - our largest philanthropic day of the year. For 24 hours, we come together as a group to give back and celebrate all the ways philanthropy impacts UWL.