Navy Wins GPTV Fund Raiser

Navy: $6,815 - Army: $6,805

On Thursday night December 2nd, 2004, Navy and Army teams manned the phones at the GPTV studio offices for our annual Army/Navy GPTV Fund Raising Challenge.

Many thanks to Atlanta Chapter Database Administrator Mike Herger '90, for organizing the event again this year.

The following event summary was written by Mary McElroy '87:

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You’ve no doubt seen pledge drives on television before where you see people sitting behind the emcee, manning telephones and accepting phone calls in support of the pledge drive. Well, each year, the Atlanta Chapter of the Naval Academy Alumni Association and the West Point Society of Atlanta get together to assist Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) with their annual pledge drive.

The event takes place on the Thursday before the Army-Navy game and involves the teams competing to see which group can raise the most money. About fifteen members of each alumni group report to the GPB studios for a nutritious dinner, a brief orientation and then report to the studios to man the phones. Depending on the goal, we stay at the station between two and four hours. The Navy contingent is usually outfitted in matching blue and gold sweatshirts and the Army crew wears matching gold and black shirts. Between crank calls and good-natured ribbing of the Army guys, we work hard on the phones to assist as people part with some of their hard-earned cash to help provide programming and personnel support for the cultural and educational initiatives that the channel is pursuing.

During the telecast, there are usually live interviews where each organization gets a chance to plug those things that are near and dear to them and express appreciation for the good work that the television station is doing. This year, Navy beat Army again with $6,815 being collected by Navy and $6,805 being collected by Army. Georgia Public Broadcasting's goal for the evening was $12,000. So, we exceeded the goal by $1,620 in total.

If you are looking for a fun way to get involved in community service, you might want to contact your local public television station.
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The following alumni made up the Navy team: (See first picture below)

Front Row: Mike Herger '90 (Event Organizer), Mike Barber ’89, Tim Phillips ‘89
Middle Row: Nikki Peoples ’97, Dean Cottle ’80, Mary McElroy ’87, Ples Bruce ’77, Eric Busko ‘88
Back Row: Jason Van Matre ’94, Greg Rivera ’93, Carl McCallum ’60, Al Jones ’67, Manny Garcia ’84, Dick Fitzgerald ’62, Dallas Covington ‘96
Not Pictured: Mike Donohoo '65 (but he's in some other shots!)

Click on a thumbnail image to view a full sized picture.

Navy team members. What a great looking crew!

Mary McElroy '87 with GPTV event host.

Navy team at pre-event dinner. Chow down!

Army and Navy teams man the phones.