ALFRED, NY – Alfred University Athletics was successful during its third annual Go Saxons Day of Giving, which ran March 24 at 11:00am for 24 hours, raising $156,515 to support the Saxons.
 
The first year that AU hosted Go Saxons Day of Giving, the grand total raised was $142,042 from 1,140 gifts. Last year, the event raised $147,971, showing a $5,929 increase in dollars raised and was paired with the increase of number of gifts to 1,684. This year, Go Saxons Day of Giving was highlighted by the increase in dollars raised by $8,544 and had a total of 1,770 donor gifts, both being new records. Over the past three years, Go Saxons Day of Giving has generated a grand total of $446,528 in support of the Saxon student-athletes.
 
383 alumni made gifts to their favorite team(s)/program(s) and 191 current student-athletes contributed as well.
 
The initiative to raise money for the Saxons had an additional sense of competitiveness as there was $10,000 of challenge dollars on the table for teams and programs to win. The challenges ranged from alumni support and friends & family support, to sprint challenges and internal challenges based on social media interactions.
 
"It is a privilege to be a part of such an exciting program for our Alfred student-athletes and coaches," Galanis Family Vice President for University Advancement Erin Martinovich said. "The collective support of our extended Saxon Nation is positively inspiring, thank you."
 
During the 24 hours, Alfred University Athletics hosted three live stream events. Each of the events was paired with a sprint challenge for teams to earn portions of the challenge dollars. The kickoff stream challenges were first female and first male sports to have 25 gifts with softball and football winning those. The Saxon baseball team went on to win both sprint challenges during the Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning streams. Both sprint challenges had the goal of most gifts during the time periods that the streams were live.
 
The Saxon men's swimming & diving program won the top prize for the number of alumni who gave back. Women's soccer was second with softball, men's soccer, women's basketball, women's lacrosse and women's swimming & diving all tying for third place. The friends & family challenge was won by women's basketball with softball taking second and men's soccer earning third place.
 
In internal challenges, equestrian won the best Go Saxons Day of Giving video challenge and field hockey won best social media interaction. Sports Medicine won the support team challenge, raising the most money during the 24 hours between them, Strength & Conditioning and Athletic Communications.
 
While Go Saxons Day of Giving has concluded, fans, family, friends and alumni can still support Alfred University's student-athletes by joining Saxon Nation here.