Image Credit to Alexandria Jones

By: Riplee Breeden

Day of Giving and Numa’s Birthday is a tradition that every lion comes to know. Started on April 28, 2022, to raise money for 6 projects on campus. This year, 2026, will be celebrated April 28 at 8:00 a.m. until April 29 at 4:08 p.m. funding around 16 different projects on campus from RSO’s and department. How did it get to this point? How have we grown this celebration to what it is now?

I got the opportunity to sit down with our Chancellor Dr. Terisa Riley to discuss Day of Giving, Numa’s Birthday, and how it's grown over the years. Being Chancellor since 2019 she has been able to witness the first year of the Day of Giving to now. When asked what changes she has witnessed over the years the answer was plain and simple “Every year the event has gotten bigger.” Going from only celebrating and raising money one day, thanks to the suggestion from Jasmine Smith, it evolved to fundraising for 1,928 minutes which is symbolic to our founding year 1928. Dr. Riley believed that this change helped with giving more time for people to share the information and get donations.

Getting more into the history of the initial kickstart of Day of Giving Dr.Terisa Riley mentioned that through platforms like “Go Fund Me” there's no real way to know and keep track of the donations, stating “most of us want to professionalize the process so that we have ways to continually thank the donors who are investing”. With UAFS Foundation they are able to recognize donors for their help to the organizations as well as each project being able to set up accounts and being able to get to the funds and use them like they promised they would.

Adding Numa’s Birthday to the mix of Day of Giving is a great way to celebrate the community we have built on campus. Dr. Riley believes that adding Numa into the mix helps others who aren’t a part of campus to feel like they are part of our pride because they donate to the pride. 

When asked what her favorite memory has been over these past years she said the creativity of the students and faculty, along with this being heavily student led. At each of the table at Numa's Birthday an RSO or department is raising money and they each have a fun activity to pair with it.

Dr. Terisa Riley would like everyone to know that every dollar helps. The money you donate even if just a $5 gift could mean the difference from an organization hitting their goal or not.

Along with getting to speak to Dr. Riley, I spoke with one of the student leaders on campus who has been helping plan and get ready for Numa’s Birthday. Milan Baker is an Event Coordinator for CAB, Campus Activities Board, here at UAFS. She has been planning Numa’s Birthday since the start of the Spring Semester, talking with her committee about what they would like to see at this year's event. She said she wants this year's festivities to have more interactive elements for anyone who attends saying the plan is “Go big or go home.” 

This will be Milan’s second year of Day of Giving and Numa’s Birthday. When asked what she was most excited about this second time around “I'm most excited to see students coming out, participating, and see all there is to do.”

The top three reasons Milan gave for why it's so important we celebrate Day of Giving and Numa’s Birthday were: fundraising, history, and community.“One of the main things is this is a fundraising event, the money goes to programs we need to support.” Milan also dropped the fun fact that the reason we celebrate on April 28th is because that is when we got the statue of the leaping lion in front of Stubblefield. 

This event brings people together, you can meet new people and discover new organizations along with what they do. This event is for everyone, even if you come alone there will be people who invite you with open arms and want to see you participate and try out their games and activities. At first Day of Giving can be seen just as simply fundraising which is how a lot of people perceive it at first, but once you do step in and participate and go to Numa’s Birthday you finally see that it is all about community and the pride you feel about being a UAFS Lion! You can find your people and what you want to do here by showing up and having fun. 

Take this as a personal invite from me, Dr. Riley, and the organizations on campus to show up to Numa’s Birthday April 29th 2:00-4:00 on the Campus Green (RAWC if it rains) and be part of the history of UAFS!