Cherry Crusade elects 2011-12 officers

The Cherry Crusade announced its officers and ideas for the 2011-12 year. In preparation for the 2011-12 academic year, the Cherry Crusade elected its new officers: Alyssa Furukawa as president-elect, Lindsey Bitler as vice president-elect

The Cherry Crusade announced its officers and ideas for the 2011-12 year.

In preparation for the 2011-12 academic year, the Cherry Crusade elected its new officers: Alyssa Furukawa as president-elect, Lindsey Bitler as vice president-elect of operations, Freddie Saporito as vice president-elect of marketing, Bill Willson as treasurer-elect, Andrew Kolb as secretary-elect, Gabrielle Nichols as TSG representative-elect and Shannon Boyle as social networking chair-elect.

Bitler, a junior broadcast telecommunications and mass media and history major, said the new executive board’s main goal is to raise the attendance of Temple students at athletic events.

“Our goal is to get the Temple student population more aware of Temple athletics and the successes that they had and get more people out to games and [be] more spirited,” Bitler said.

Kevin Woerner, a senior journalism major and the current president of the Cherry Crusade, said everyone in the Cherry Crusade is working toward the same goal.

“Even though we had to have elections, really everyone’s working toward that same goal – trying to get everyone to show up and come out to games,” Woerner said.

This year, the Cherry Crusade had approximately 40 members who voted on April 6, Woerner said.

Bitler said the organization is getting bigger and is progressing as a more influential student organization.

“We had about 60 dues-paying members, which was such a big increase and a big step for us because we’ve never really been a dues-paying organization that kind of had regular meetings,” Bitler said. “Last year was the first step in getting organized, and next year we hope to continue that and continue to keep growing.”

Furukawa, a junior psychology major, has been involved with the Cherry Crusade since her first days at Temple.

“I figured I had ideas, and I care enough that those ideas could possibly work, maybe. So, I went with it,” Furukawa said. “My friend, one of my really good friends, was the president the last two years – Luke Butler – and he’s really a large part of what made the crusade what it is. I just wanted to continue that tradition of being awesome.”

Kolb, a senior business education major, said he joined the executive board because he had a lot of ideas for new events.

Boyle, a freshman film and media arts major, also had many ideas, especially for the social networking side of the organization.

“People use Facebook to find out about a lot of the events, so I thought I could use the fact that I don’t study for anything, I just go on Facebook as a tool to promote more,” Boyle said.

The new executive board has been working closely with the outgoing executive board to plan Cherry and White Day and Spring Fling. The board has also been looking forward to next year as it plans convocation, Welcome Week and the Mayor’s Cup.

Bitler thought it would be a good idea to create a “spirit tunnel” for freshmen leaving convocation.

“I feel like the energy would be a lot of fun if all of the freshman class was leaving to a bunch of people and they see the Temple spirit and us being like normal students going crazy for Temple,” Bitler said. “I think it would kind of set a tone and get our name out there.”

“Go big or go home,” Furuwaka said, looking ahead for next year. “That’s the theme of the year.”

Lily Fronden can be reached at lily.fronden@temple.edu.

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