Flyers for Life
Giving day showed what Flyers do best
By Erin Reilly ‘97
Author bio
City: Dallas
Profession: Manager of sales and partner enablement
Favorite UD home: The Chapel – Every time I’m on campus, I go see it.
UD role: I love sharing what the University of Dayton is about and spreading our community as the Dallas/Fort Worth Alumni Community leader.
As an alumni community leader, I was asked to help promote UD’s day of giving. Of course, as a forever Flyer, they didn’t have to ask — I was going to do it anyway! As a Flyer family (our son will graduate in 2020), giving day gave our family another chance to show our pride and support UD, to participate in the community we know and love. It is great to see our university continue to thrive and change over time.
The DFW Alumni Community had a small get-together in Dallas so local Flyers could gather during One Day, One Dayton. Having even a small group of us, including kids (hopeful future Flyers), come together on a weeknight was great. We all had our phones out, checking on how the numbers were changing. Thanks to our lively conversation and use of UD pompoms, strangers even stopped by to ask us about UD.
One of the greatest parts of the day was that there wasn’t pressure about how much people gave, it was just that they gave. Our goal of 1850 donations, to match the year UD started, was awesome. And, it was a happy surprise to find that I could choose where to direct my gift.
Clearly, as an alum, I couldn’t be happier to have my son be a Flyer. Seeing him and his friends participate in the day made it even more special for our family. The livestream and social media posts almost made it feel like we were on campus too.
In today’s day and age, we sometimes forget what “community” means. I really felt that we all came together for One Day, One Dayton. That alone makes the day a success. It wasn’t just alumni, just parents or just students — it was everyone who wants to see our community continue and wants new Flyers to join our community.
The results of giving day didn’t really surprise me. This is what Flyers do; we come together. I didn’t expect anything less. We are UD!
