From Top Shelf to Food Shelf: Year 3

I’m truly blown away by the generosity of college hockey fans.

In years 1 and 2 of the campaign, fans raised $943 total. I was pretty excited for that, it was a fun way to give back, and make some new friends.

This year the campaign took off in a way I could never have imagined. I could barely keep up with the spreadsheet I’d created. Without the hashtag on Twitter, I’d have missed quite a few pledges, as the campaign propagated through the NCHC fanbases into the other D1 schools, the NWHL, the ACHA, and the English Premier League. Coaches bid. The NCHC Commissioner bid. People rounded up, or came up with additional pledges halfway through the weekend

There are still some bids outstanding (the EPL game in question has yet to be played, and some folks bid for next weekend too), but here’s where the campaign stands:

$2548 and 311 food items.

That’s 2.7x the cumulative money raised over the last two years, and probably about 50x the cumulative number of food items pledged. The grand total for the three years of the campaign is $3491.

About 20% of the monetary total comes from Dogs fans, thanks to the 19 goals scored between the two teams. UNO, UNH, and SCSU fans came up big, too.  Wisconsin fans can thank the donors from their fanbase for motivating the women’s team to sweep the Gophers, and the men’s team to… score a lot of futile goals in a loss and tie. The BC men were motivated to come storming back in the 3rd period of their game yesterday, thanks to the efforts of the BC Interruption crew. I am very sorry that SCSU fans were not able to make good on their pledge of $2 million if the men came back to win on Saturday night.

Thank you all so much for participating, through pledges or publicity. We’ve made a small difference in a lot of communities this year. Small differences add up to real change in the world, so thank you for being a part of something greater.

I will keep updating if I get additional information, but this will be the last big post about the campaign. Remember it for next year!

As far as making your donations, just send your money or food directly to your chosen organization. I don’t need proof; I trust that everyone will follow through on their pledge. If your pledge got a little beyond what you thought it might (there were some high-scoring games!), there’s no harm in spreading it out over a few paychecks or a few months.

I wish you all a very happy holiday season, and I hope the kindness and generosity you’ve shown through From Top Shelf To Food Shelf returns to you, and then some.