Interview: Jenn Siess -Organizer, Founder of Joggin' for the Noggin' 5k Benefit Race
By Matt Dobbins
October 17, 2008
Most seniors relish their evaporating days on campus by spending their remaining time soaking up all
Jenn Siess is not your typical senior. While many are busy tapping the snooze button of their alarms, Siess is up at the crack of dawn, darting around campus and the surrounding
After the loss of her cousin Kristin Corrigan to a brain tumor, Siess decided to enact a fundraiser in support of all those affected by brain tumors. Pairing with the National Brain Tumor Foundation, Siess has already raised more than $12,000 and looks to improve upon last year's success.
On Saturday, students, faculty and friends will cross the finish line at the Duck Pond after 3.1 hard fought miles of what will be in my case, an excruciating combination of jogging and crawling.
Registration will be $20 on race day and all proceeds will go to the National Brain Tumor foundation. There are 26 different age and gender groups, with ample room for prizes and giveaways from vendors such as Sharkey's, the Cellar, Bogen's, and Substation II. The race is set to commence at 11 a.m., and registration is open as early as 9:30 a.m.
Siess agreed to answer a series of questions to be published on Planet Blacksburg. What follows is an edited selection of questions and answers.
Q: How do you build on the success of last year's debut?
Siess: I kind of knew what to do, and what not to do. I mean, last year was incredibly successful - we ended up raising over $12,000 and had over 120 runners. It was a great success and I think it also had a lot to do with the fact that my cousin Kristen had passed away only a few months previous to last year's race. This year I think it's a lot more about the awareness and getting the word out, and that it's still in honor of my cousin. We have some families coming down and you really begin to find out how many people are affected by brain tumors and it really gets you thinking. We have a woman, her name is Helen Schaefer I think, she came last year and she crossed the finished line and came up to me and said, "Hi, my name is Helen, are you Jenn? I'm really glad you're working on this event. I have a brain tumor myself and I'm lucky that it can be treated." I was kind of shocked that she was running in the first place and then I was opening the mail and saw [Helen's] submitted form, and on the back of the envelope it said, "we're so glad you're doing this again, cant wait to see you" and that she's running again this year. It's just surprising to see how other people are fully involved in it and have connections to it that you just really aren't aware of until you do something like this.
Q: What kind of organization and planning goes into pulling off an event like this and what have you learned from your experiences over the past two years?
Siess: Last year we signed up for the VT Engage thing and I was talking to my two roommates who are helping me, and I said, 'well how many hours should we put in?' I think last year we said that we worked on it for about 60 hours. It's been a lot. I think the part I hate most is asking for money, and asking for sponsorships - you know, no one likes asking people for money, but it's for a good cause. So the most time consuming, but also the most important, is going around and explaining to people what you're doing and why you're doing it and that you'd like some support. Talking to business after business, sometimes you get rejected, and other times someone will tell you a story. The lady from Ben and Jerry's told me that her son just passed away from a brain tumor a couple years back. Sometimes people have connections and other times they have so many organizations asking them for money so it's difficult for them, I know, to help. Overall, it's difficult to say how many hours I've put into this. We decided to do it a week earlier than we did last year. Sometimes a week can make so much of a difference, so I was kind of kicking myself there for a while, but I think it's all going to work out great. I mean basically since I got down to school I've definitely worked on it at least 8 hours a week. And this week has been all day everyday.
Q: What kind of challenges have you faced in putting together a fundraiser of this magnitude?
Siess: Last year was such an incredible success. I was working with James DeMarco of Runabout Sports when I was first organizing the event and he said, "You know it's a first year race, you can expect about 40 or 50 people." Well, 120 people showed up last year and we were almost running out of gift bags and stuff. So this year, I don't know if everyone's expecting it to be the thing, the turn out, that last year was. I think it will be difficult to raise the same amount of money. At the same time it's difficult to get that same amount of money coming back in. After being a first year thing, I think it's going to level out. So to make it an annual event, I guess we'll have to find that happy medium on what to expect every year in terms of donations and gift certificates from local businesses. I'd say that would be the challenge - working off of last year's success and trying to see how many people will show up and support the event.
Q: Have you made any plans to take Joggin' for the Noggin' or fundraising for the National Brain Tumor Foundation outside the Virginia Tech community?
Siess: Yeah, definitely. I graduate in May and am not completely sure where I'm going. I think it's something I definitely want to carry on as an annual event. It was just so incredibly convenient for it to be at VT - they have their course, they have their map and you just decide what you want the route to be; everything is just kind of right there. Working with people in event planning and making sure you get all your ducks in a row, that's the challenge. Other than that, everything is right here at your fingertips on campus. All the people that help out: Sigma Chi fraternity being able to sponsor for insurance purposes, Virginia Tech ASLA who helped me get signed off on things like event planning. It's all been great, so once I branch off and go away from the university, ill have to tackle a couple different things to get organized. My roommates are helping me put this together, and there's just so much preparation that goes into it - just the signs, organizing where we need volunteers on the course. We have so much stuff done from last year that this year has been so much easier. We can spend that much more time trying to collect donations, get runners, and do more advertising on campus this year rather than trying to organize how the set up of the actual race works.
Q: What made you go with a 5k race as opposed to any other form of fundraiser, and why do you think sports have such a profound impact on raising awareness and encouraging fundraising endeavors?
Siess: I was looking at different ideas on what to do. People asked if my cousin liked to run and I said, 'not especially.' I think being active in a community and for people in general, to be able to get up and go outside and come together is a really important thing. You see people coming across the finish line; they're smiling, they're happy and you can tell that they're happy they came out. I think they get more out of it than just donating some money - getting out and spending time with friends, or learning more about the National Brain Tumor Foundation and just how brain tumors can affect people in general. I like running, I'm not very good at it, I'm not a tri athlete or anything, but there's a lot of runners on campus, and enough people interested in getting outside and making a difference.
Comments (1)
When is the race in 2009 at Virginia Tech?
Rita Parr | June 25, 2009 5:18 PMPost a comment