“Zoooming” ahead in support of student officials development

It was a close match, but when the final whistle blew on April 25, Team Flag Football had held onto their lead in the friendly competition with Team Basketball, raising the most donations to benefit the Student Officials Development Campaign during the ZOOOM Match Challenge Initiative.

NIRSA associate member ZOOOM believes in the future and value of NIRSA’s student officials development program and partnered with the NIRSA Foundation to support the Student Officials Development Campaign. ZOOOM said that between January 5 and April 25 they would match up to $2,000 in gifts made to the Student Officials Development Campaign, one of the NIRSA Foundation’s four fields of interest.

NIRSA members do love a good challenge and as they closed in on raising $2,000, an anonymous fan of officiating stepped forward and issued a secondary challenge: “If you raise an additional $1,000 for the SODC, I will match it with $1,000.”

We met both challenges and then some. Including the matches, a total of $6,898 was raised in support of Student Officials Development! Wow, what a win for student officials at the NIRSA flag football and basketball championship series tournaments.

Gifts made to the Student Officials Development Campaign provide a high level of evaluation and training of student officials at NIRSA flag football and basketball championships events by paying for lodging, meals, and on-site transportation for the student officials and their NIRSA volunteer evaluators.