During softball's NCAA run in 2021, we started the "Poppin It" Challenge as a way to add a little spark to the postseason. We managed to raise $21,000 which I thought was an amazing number and speaks to the generosity of the TSL family. In 2022, we started a season-long challenge ("Ten for the Win") and raised $65,000+. Then it was Dollars for Dingers in In 2023 ($44,641), and the TSL Challenge last year ($44,000). Together, all the fundraising that we done has raised over $260,000 as you can see in the chart below. At some point the Hokie Club started their own version of pledge per stat, which is awesome. Done properly, their outreach is significantly more broad than mine, and I simply want to see that the softball program gets as much money as they can. I have always said that I am not in competition with the Hokie Club, but sometimes it seems I am viewed that way from their perspective I have even considered stopping my fundraising efforts entirely, but have not done so for two reasons. 1. There is some mistrust regarding distribution of the dollars that are sent directly to the Hokie Club and whether they actually increase the dollars budgeted to the softball program. Some donors have bluntly told me that they will not give directly to the Hokie Club for that reason. The Hokie Club insists that the dollars do get to the softball program, but I am not willing to walk away from any softball program dollars so I keep going. On that very topic, my fundraising is clunky - donors make their checks to the "Virginia Tech Athletic Fund - Softball" and send them to me and I gather them together and deliver them direct to Coach D'Amour. He therefore knows these dollars that I have given him are in addition to his established budget and therefore his available funds increase accordingly. 2. Some folks want to show the impact that TSL has to athletics and obviously the dollars that come thru me are almost all TSL related. The TSL giving also enables additional chatter on the boards...i.e. "those home runs just cost me $50." I think we make giving fun. Again, I am NOT in competition with the Hokie Club, but I do want the softball program to get every single dollar possible. I even serve as an Ambassador during the Giving Days and Triumph Together drives and there's been another $92,000 that has flowed through those channels. So bottom line....give however you want. The important thing is to give!!!!!!