In celebration of the season of love, the American Marketing Association at ETSU held a five-day secret valentine fundraiser.

Students were invited to buy a secret valentine for a special someone in their life during the week of Feb. 5. The valentines started out at $5 at the beginning of the week, decreasing down to $3 the last two days of the fundraiser. All proceeds went towards the AMA chapter and preparation for future events.

Pink, white and red smiley faces scatter the AMA table in the Culp. (Abby Trembeczki/East Tennessean)

“I participated in secret valentines in high school with a club, and it was successful and fun. So, I felt like that form of fundraiser was different than most you would see involved with organizations,” said Alexandria Pierce, vice president of recruiting for AMA.

The fundraiser was held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the D.P. Culp Center across from the Starbucks. Each student that participated in purchasing these gifts of love left their recipient’s phone number or email address and waited until the recipients received notice on Valentine’s Day eve of their secret valentine’s action of love. The recipients were then instructed to pick up their secret valentine in the Culp Center, encapsulating the love and hearts that surround this special day. The fundraiser was open to faculty and staff in addition to students with an open invitation for both student and non-student recipients.

“A lot of our members with positions are about to graduate, so we wanted to recruit people to fill those positions. This was a way to spread the word about our chapter and recruit future members,” said Pierce.

All future fundraisers held by the AMA chapter will directly benefit an annual competition held in the fall. The chapter will travel out of town for the case study, relying on community support for financial expenses. To keep up to date with future events, the chapter can be found on Instagram @etsu.ama.

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