Snapple Bowl donation record set - Woodbridge duo aided fundraising efforts
by WoodbridgeFootball.com / MyCentralJersey.com / NJ.com on 08/12/16
MARCUS BORDEN @BORDENFB4EVER
August 12, 2016
In today’s sports world, the headlines are more often reserved for the ills and wrongs of athletes from high school to the NFL rather than extolling their good deeds. A journalist’s insatiable desire to get the scoop before anyone else drives the reporter to post sports sensationalism online, on social media platforms and finally in print.
This feel-good story is about two of the most unlikely Guardians of the Galaxy that you will ever meet. One dons a top hat while the other wears a hard hat. Neither has a cape, although their uniform is uniquely tailored to fit their pastime.
Jonathan O’Halloran, aka “The Barron,” the Woodbridge High School mascot, and David McDevitt, an offensive lineman from the Barron football team, are June graduates who participated in last month’s MyCentralJersey.com
Snapple Bowl in their own backyard of Nicholas A. Priscoe Stadium.
They were part of the Middlesex County team that played Union County in Snapple Bowl XXIII, a charity allstar football game composed of rosters of graduating seniors. All proceeds from the game benefit Children’s Specialized Hospital and the Lakeview School, a program of the Edison-based New Jersey Institute for Disabilities.
Together, these master fundraisers soared above the rest of the competition by raising $10,150 to help establish a single-game donation record of $55,000. The previous record of $50,000 was set last year at Kean University. Since the first contest in 1994, the Snapple Bowl has raised $590,000.
McDevitt used a GoFundMe account, sold 130 game tickets at $10 each, secured four $200 full-color ads for the 184-page full-color program book and sold $440 worth of $1 TV raffle tickets to establish the second-highest individual fundraising record of $4,570.
O’Halloran, the two-time winner of the Debbie Ganz Spirit of the Game Award recognizing the top mascot in Union and Middlesex counties, shattered his own record of $2,525 set last year with a new benchmark of $5,580. Jon raised the majority of his money through a GoFundMe account and a highly successful Spirit Night at Chickfil- A of St. Georges Crossing in Woodbridge.
These two young men have set a gold medal standard that reflects the values and teachings of their school district and its emphasis on making a difference in the community. They are true reminder that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. They embody the Snapple Bowl’s mission to be Champions for Children. Marcus A. Borden is the founder/ game director of the MyCentral Jersey.com Snapple Bowl
