The Oak Creek Jungle Carnival is a fundraiser for the Oak Creek Campus student clubs. Cathy Lechmaier, the Advisor for Student Government, says the fundraiser has been going on for roughly 15 years. According to Lechmaier, “What it is is a joint venture of a one time only for clubs who want to participate. They get to come and do a fund raiser.”
This year, the fundraiser was made out to be a carnival indoors, and was held at the Oak Creek campus cafeteria with the theme of “Safari Night.” All of the volunteers wore Safari hats and took turns helping out in various areas of the operation. The carnival theme used play money for gaming, and a silent auction to raise money for the clubs.
This year’s participants were the Student Government, the ‘A.I.T.P.’, which is an acronym for ‘Association for Information Technology Professionals,’ and the Heating and Air Conditioning club. The A.I.T.P. goes to national conferences, so their portions help them with registration fees. Heating and Air Conditioning’s proceeds will help to pay for bus rides to seminars and trade shows.
They also collect canned goods to help with local food pantries. A former anonymous Alumni, who works at Miller Brewing Co., gets a monthly beer allotment, which he in turn saved up and used to donate to the carnival to help with his old club’s costs, the Heating and Air Conditioning’s club. This beer was put into a drawing for the silent auction.
Another way that money was raised was the sale of food tickets for $2.00 each. Julia Fedran, Student Senator, along with student Angela Olson, helped out in the refreshment area by taking orders for Jimmy Johns subs.
There were game tickets sold for the children, and for the adults there were also tickets sold for Casino Nite, raffle tickets, and the play chips, all for $1.00 each. Beer tickets went for $2.00 a piece, soda and water was $.50.
Various student volunteers like Jason Chin were dealers at the Blackjack tables, and there was even a craps table.