The Penn State Student Chapter of USITT spent two years raising funds for Behind the Scenes. Michelle Kokal, this year's Philanthropy Chair for the Chapter shared some of their fundraising ideas:

"Our first fundraiser took place two years ago during the performances of one of our mainstage shows – Urinetown.  To anyone unfamiliar with that show, the water supply becomes so scarce that the characters are forced to pay a fee any time they want to use the bathroom. So during intermission of our performances, we had people standing outside of the restrooms with coffee cans that read “Penny for a Pee”. We also hung posters near the bathroom to let people learn more about Behind the Scenes if they wanted to.

Michelle presents a check to Behind the Scenes Committee Member, Bill Sapsis, during USITT 2008.

The most recent fundraiser was at the Cold Stone creamery last month. We had a group of around eight people volunteer to work from 6:00pm to 9:00pm and the percentage of profit we earned depended on how much business we brought into Cold Stone during those three hours.

Throughout the past two years we’ve also kept a coffee can and handouts about Behind the Scenes near our concessions booth.