PUSH event raises record $10,000 for USO

Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) hosted The PUSH on Saturday, in which teams of eight take turns pushing a Humvee 80 yards down Homewood Field. The event drew over 300 participants and raised approximately $10,000 for the United Service Organizations (USO), a charity that benefits members of the armed forces and their families.

“It’s a fun way to benefit a good charity organization,” freshman Jonathan Loewenberg, a participant in the event, said.

The event was founded in 2012 by Michael St. Germain, a FIJI brother who was also part of ROTC. He’s currently a School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) student in Bologna.

“He saw a Humvee push at another campus and thought it could be a really good fundraiser at Hopkins. With his ROTC connections and being in a fraternity, he put them together and came up with this really good event,” senior David Forester, a FIJI brother and this year’s organizer of the event, said.

ROTC continues to play a key role in organizing the PUSH. This year, over 40 percent of the Blue Jay Battalion participated by either competing or staffing.

“Each year we coordinate with National Guard Units in the area to supply the Humvees. This year, as an official co-sponsor of the event, ROTC, in addition to providing the Humvees, worked on the executive staff several months in advance to organize the event. [ROTC also] provided additional staffing the day of, fielded five teams and made an additional donation of 900 dollars,” said ROTC cadet Ally Tanzola, who acted as the liaison between ROTC and the brothers of FIJI.

Over the last three years, participation has grown from 22 teams to 38. In addition to attracting student groups from Hopkins, the event engaged members from the Baltimore community, including baristas from the Daily Grind Café at the Brody Learning Commons and students from Gilman High School in Roland Park. This year, President Ronald Daniels also pushed alongside Hopkins students.

“It’s a culmination of all different aspects of Johns Hopkins and Baltimore city. I’m really happy with what it’s turned into. When it started, it was basically a Greek fundraiser and it’s coming out to be a Baltimore city fundraiser,” said William Szymanski, a FIJI brother who competed as part of the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) team.

This year, the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity (Wawa) claimed the top time for the second year in a row and won a $300 gift certificate to the Brewer’s Art. Smaller prizes were awarded to teams in other categories. The Ladybirds dance team won a $100 gift certificate to Chipotle for finishing first in the all-girls heat and Alpha Phi won a $150 gift card to Maxies for winning the Spirit Prize. A total of over $1,000 in prizes was awarded to participating teams.

“Events like this on campus are great. Maybe there wasn’t so much bonding beforehand, but the event itself promotes bonding, especially [because it] get[s] everyone together,” said sophomore Remi Ricciuti, who competed as part of the Alpha Phi team.

At this year’s event, with more teams competing than ever, the PUSH was able to raise a record amount of money.

“We raised $7,000 last year, and $3,000 the year before,” senior and FIJI member Andrew Towson said. “Before the event even started, we had $8,000.”

They received this preliminary sum via online donations made in the weeks leading up to the event. These online donations, coupled with the $10 participant fee paid by over 300 competitors, totaled to about $10,000 for the USO.

“At the end of the day, helping out the USO is all that matters,” Szymanski said about the event.

Looking forward, organizers hope to keep growing the event and continue to raise more money.

“We also hope to establish some more successful traditions in order to set the stage for increasing the scope of the event in future years to include not only the Hopkins community, but the wider Baltimore community as well,” Tanzola said.

Forester agreed with Tanzola’s hope.

“Every year we try to make it bigger and better,” Forester said. “This year, we got Homewood Field, [and] maybe next year we’ll get an air drop from a helicopter.”