North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Free Concert Hopes to Raise Cash, Awareness
4/25/2008 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
BY TIM PEELER
“If I am flipping channels, I always stop when I see one of them on television,” says the junior on the NC State women’s swimming and diving team. “My mom is always telling me I don’t want to watch that during dinner.’”
But for Pegg, a vice president of the NC State Student Athlete Advisory Committee, that’s kind of the point taking someone out of their comfort zone someone, in the hopes of affecting some change.
“I always leave it there,” Pegg says.
Last fall, Pegg first learned about the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of
Sutton, who returned to the
“I knew I had to do something,” Pegg says.
So she went to Tonya Washington, NC State’s assistant athletics director for student athlete development and community relations and the SAAC advisor. Pegg then made a presentation to the entire committee, which consists of about two dozen Wolfpack student-athletes who participate in a variety of service projects. She showed them the same 15-minute documentary clip that she saw in class, and it had a similar impact.
“I saw a woman on there have her leg pulled off, without any anesthesia,” said Wolfpack running back Andre Brown. “I felt like we had to step up and help some people out.”
Coincidentally, a day after Pegg talked to
NC State and Clemson were chosen to hosts the concerts, based on student enthusiasm for the event.
Pegg and the other members of SAAC drew up a list of artists they wanted for the concert and Coke helped recruit acoustic rocker Corey Smith and singer-songwriter Graham Colton, a pair of up-and-comers popular on college campuses. They will perform a free concert Saturday at 6 p.m. at NC State’s Reynolds Coliseum.
Both Harrison, who traveled to
For months, Pegg has helped organize the event. Dozens of athletes have been marketing the concert and raising money for UNICEF on the NC State Brickyard. So far, they have raised in excess of $300, with an additional $1,000 pledged by a Triangle corporation. Brown and his football teammates painted the Free Expression Tunnel on Wednesday to promote the concert. And some 30 volunteers including student-athletes, student government leaders and members of the Student Wolfpack Club will be on hand to collect more money to send to UNICEF.
For men’s basketball standout Brandon Costner, who grew up in
“I have lived in a lot of other places and have followed what goes on in lot of other countries,” says Costner, a member of SAAC. “I have always been passionate about
Last fall, according to
It was the first fundraiser of its kind, according to SAAC president and soccer player Ronnie Bouemboue. He and the other members of SAAC would like to see at least that much money raised at Saturday’s concert.
“Before the talent show, I was a little skeptical,” Pegg says. “I didn’t think we would raise as much money as we did. But that showed me that, wow, just because I am a student-athlete here, I have access to all these resources. I knew we had to do something else like it.”
“They have been working on it for months, and it’s really taught them how to create a program from the very beginning, how to organize it, market it and publicize it. And they are learning how to work with corporate
Pegg is already thinking about how to make the event bigger for next spring, when she is a senior.
“This is already so much bigger than I thought it would be,” she says. “But I think we can make it even bigger next time around.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
