The UW-Platteville Foundation Phone-a-thon is getting ready to launch the Community Scholarship program again this spring. Their goal for this semester is to raise $1,250,000.

The community scholarship program funds scholarships to any student that is accepted into UW-P through their high school.

“Our goal is to eventually have a scholarship program set up in every high school in the tri-state area,” Gina Udelhofen, annual giving director at UW-P Foundation, said.

The community scholarship allows donators to support any community or high school of their choice, whether it is the high school they graduated from or the community in which they live. The program started last spring and did so well that they decided to keep it going.

The job of the Phone-a-thon callers is to get donations from the active alumni. More than a third of alumni contacted donate and most of them are past givers, Udelhofen said. For a first time donor, a donation of $25 is usually requested. For a returning donor, the asking amount is based on past donations.

Linda Pauls Fleming is an alumna that has been donating for over 30 years. She graduated in 1973 and has been on the Foundation board for nine years.

“I decided to donate because I got so much out of my experience from Platteville,” Pauls Fleming said. “I just wanted to give back to the campus and also to students so that they can benefit.”

Udelhofen hires 35 students of different majors and backgrounds to fill 20 booths. Newly renovated Ullsvik Hall is helpful with the Phone-a-thon. When the event took place in Royce Hall, Udelhofen only had 12 students calling with less than desirable conditions.

“It was in a square room, everybody was crowded and everything echoed. It was very unorganized,” Kara Geertsma, a junior agronomy major, said. “But now that we are in Ullsvik, things are a lot more organized and set up a lot nicer with the new booths and phones.”