A student-initiated fundraiser is reaching new heights at the Marriott School. The second annual Corporate Climb, held 26 March 2005, helped raise more than $12,000 for the school’s annual fund. Participants sprinted up stairs and raced around corners—but not because they were late for class.
The Corporate Climb is an athletic competition designed to raise money for the Marriott School’s Annual Fund. Students, faculty, and administrators run, and sometimes limp, up the Tanner Building’s fourteen flights of stairs and then return to the first floor, creating a loop. Runners can participate in a sixteen-, seven-, or three-lap race, individually or in relay teams.
“Having an event that highlights the Annual Fund gets students thinking about giving back,” says Aaron Smyth, a junior majoring in accounting. “Also, it’s an opportunity to spend casual time with professors and other faculty that you may not hang out with on a regular basis.”
More than eighty-five people ran in this year’s Corporate Climb. Individual runners donated $15 to the Annual Fund. Relay team members donated $10. Others paid $5 to sponsor a runner or team. All student contributions were matched 5-to-1 by friends of the university.
Many students sponsor their favorite professors. “We’ve found that students love to see a professor sweat,” says James Clarke, graduate student council president.
The Marriott School’s Corporate Climb parallels a new trend in athletic competition—stair climbing. The Empire State Building, Sears Tower, and Aon Tower all host stair-climbing events. But runners have long recognized the physical benefits of stairs.
“I’ve run stairs for training purposes before, but doing them in a racing situation is definitely a different kind of rush,” Smyth says. “The Tanner Building stairs now hold more special memories than just going to class.”
Because stair climbing raises the heart-rate faster than any other cardiovascular activity, even the physically fit found the climb challenging. “Running stairs is hard because you have no time to relax,” says Brian Spilker, an accounting professor who ran in the Corporate Climb and also recently completed a half-marathon. “You’re either going up or going down.”
One hundred percent of entry fees and sponsorships for the Corporate Climb went to the Marriott School Annual Fund. The money strengthens graduate and undergraduate programs by funding student research, supporting career placement, and providing scholarships and grants.
For Clarke, Corporate Climb’s success isn’t measured just in dollars. The goal is to help students develop a habit of giving and to build camaraderie.
“If students come away with a good feeling about having given to the school, then we’ve been a success,” he says.
For more information on giving to the Annual Fund, contact Ron Seamons at 801-422-3801 or ron_seamons@byu.edu.
