After several years of hosting Scrabble tournaments, the Syracuse University Literacy Corps is trying something new for its annual spring fundraiser.

For the first time, Book It!, a campus-wide scavenger hunt, will take place on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. Every spring, the SULC holds an interactive event targeting students, faculty and members of the surrounding community. Literacy Corps is a group of 120 student tutors across all colleges and disciplines.

While Scrabble tournaments turned into a tradition, Courtney Inbody, a senior public relations major, explained that they were not as popular with the student demographic.

“The Scrabble tournament would get a lot of participation with our CNY participants and partners, but it wouldn’t get a lot of student involvement, because it is not as popular with college students,” Inbody said.

The proceeds earned from Book It!, through both the scavenger hunt and the raffles held at the event, will go to buying books for the Syracuse City School District, and the kids that SULC works with. The Literacy Corps typically tutors children in the city school district who are in kindergarten through third grade.

Before the scavenger hunt, the teams will meet in the Schine Student Center. Each team will receive a book, the title of which will become the group’s name. Each team’s clues will be related to that specific book title, leading them through one of the 6–7 pre-planned routes.

The general layout of the scavenger hunt is meant to promote teamwork, facilitate using knowledge about the span of campus and foster a love of literature, Inbody said.

Before and after the scavenger hunt, entertainment and refreshments will be present, as well as donated prizes to first-, second- and third-place teams. In addition, the Literacy Corps has received a stockpile of donated raffle prizes.

Nyasia Stevens, a senior mathematics major and a co-chair of the event, expressed the importance of the event for the Literacy Corps staff and local community.

“We’re not just doing this for the fun of it. We are doing this to raise money,” Stevens said. “First Book needs money, and Syracuse needs books. This is an all-around good cause.”

She said despite the fact that Book It! has never been attempted before, the response so far has been mostly positive.

Mike Velasco, a senior child and family studies major, and the other co-chair of the Book It! event said he seen a great response from the surrounding community, and feels confident that the SULC has worked hard to spread the word.

Velasco said the event is open to all members of the public, and said the group will take applicants to the very last minute.

“The response has been really decent so far. We have made people as aware as we possibly can,” said Velasco. “The important thing is that (Book It!) is on a lot of people’s minds. We’ve done our jobs.”

Published on April 8, 2015 at 10:09 pm

Contact Eva: [email protected]