The Spartan Fund is a new fundraiser started by Mr. Cernicek and Mr. Morris to help bring in more funds for the school.

Over 40% of the Big Draw revenue was going toward prizes and incentives, three tuitions worth of money. With the new Spartan Fund, De Smet is spending less than 20% on prizes and incentives. This way there will be more revenue to fund aspects of our school like financial aid for students during this trying time.

“There’s been much more hardship to the school because of families losing their jobs and being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that the school had to invest more money into those areas.” Director of Development Jeff Cernicek said. “There has been a substantial spike in financial aid this year.”

If you raise $200, it earns you an activity pass to all home games, juniors get half price for Junior Ring admission, and Seniors get half price for Prom admission. For $250, you get everything listed before and a yearbook. Lastly, if you raise $400, freshman and sophomores get a 100$ gift card, juniors get free Junior Ring dance tickets, and seniors get free Prom tickets.

“The reason we got rid of the Big Draw was because it wasn’t a viable option for the school. We were spending more on prizes and incentives than we were actually giving money to the school,” Mr. Cernicek said. “That’s why we changed to the Spartan Fund because it is 100% directly supporting the students.”

But overall, The new Spartan Fund is getting mixed results. Some students are talking about how the incentive to raise money is lowered for them now and how it is harder this year with this new program.

“I think that just asking people for money is a lot harder to do than asking them to buy into a raffle ticket which gives them an opportunity to win money,” senior Jacob Sasfai said. “This year in particular, the incentives mean a lot less, Prom tickets don’t mean a lot if we don’t know if we’re gonna have a prom and activity passes don’t mean a lot if we don’t know if we can go to sports games.”

The highest overall seller earns $1000, the second highest seller earns $500, and the third highest seller earns $250. The Grand Prize is a day off of school on October 26th if $100,000 is raised in total.

“Your donation is really transforming someone’s life that you’ve never met,” Mr. Cernicek said. “You might not meet the individual that your donation is providing financial assistance to, but you know you’re walking the halls with those guys.”