7MÊÓƵ

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Podcast: S9 Ep. 25
Date: September 14, 2026
Title: Get RED-y for Launch with Red Day 2026
Host: John Rollins

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JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all the great things happening with 7MÊÓƵ faculty, staff, students, and alumni. I'm John Rollins, Associate Director of Community Relations and Public Affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. It's that time of year where 7MÊÓƵ harnesses the power of giving through a one-day push for philanthropic support. Red Day 2026 is right around the corner, so today I'm sitting down with Aron Arceneaux and Charlee Fitzgerald to talk all about it. Thank you both for joining me today on the podcast.

CHARLEE FITZGERALD: Thank you, John.

ARON ARCENEAUX: Thanks for having us.

JOHN: Alright, so Aron, let's go ahead and start with you, mainly because you told me last year when I had you on the show, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, in 2021, this was your brainchild.

ARON: Yes.

JOHN: So tell us about Red Day.

ARON: Absolutely. So, when I first came on board to Red Day, my boss at the time mentioned that 7MÊÓƵ has never had an official day of giving, and so he wanted me to take that and run with it, and so I did. And so we created Red Day back in 2021, like you mentioned. So this year is crazy because it's year six. Yeah, it's insane to think that it's already been. We've already had six red days, but yeah. So it all began in 2021, and what's great about it is it's gotten better and better every single year, as far as donor count and gift count, and just more excitement around campus and the community, and so it's been really good.

JOHN: And it's great to see these events not only come to fruition, but have that kind of staying power, the lasting power. And I feel like Red Day's going to be around for quite a while, hopefully forever, right? I love that it was in that time frame. You know, the 2020-2021 time frame was when a lot of us, those creative ideas we put on the back burner, we're like, let's just make this happen, right? And this is virtual, which was very COVID friendly, right?

ARON: And it still is virtual. You know, the giving is done virtually, and you know we'll have some things on campus, mainly in this Set. But that's really you know just for you know for the students. But as far as you know donors, like you give online. That's how it's been done, and still is. And but this year we're trying something different. I'm kind of I have my talking points here, but I'm going kind of skipping towards the bottom. But we have we're doing some things a little differently this year. You know, we want to be more out in the community and have more involvement in there. So we have some ideas that we're doing with that. So you know, hoping to have more involvement and excitement around the community.

JOHN: And I think we can do it. We've got a pretty active, pretty awesome committee, and one of those members is Charlee Fitzgerald with Neches Federal Credit Union. So let's go ahead and do this. I'm going to let y'all introduce yourselves, and let's start with Charlee.

CHARLEE: Thank you, John. My name is Charlee Fitzgerald. I am the Community Impact Supervisor at Neches Federal Credit Union.

ARON: I'm Aron Arceneaux. I am the Annual Giving Officer here at 7MÊÓƵ.

JOHN: And are you both -- I know you are, Charlee -- are you both Lamar alumni?

ARON: We are proud Lamar alumni.

CHARLEE: Proud alumni.

JOHN: Alright. Awesome. Two alumni in the room to talk to us today. Okay, so Charlee, I want to go back over to you. Let's talk about Neches’ role with all of this. You know, why is it so important for your company to support an event like Red Day?

CHARLEE: Yeah, so I think to answer this question, I would like to give some of the history, the background of our partnership with 7MÊÓƵ. We've had a long-standing relationship spanning 20, almost 30 years at this point, and in August of 2023, we decided to make that partnership official, and Neches became the official credit union of 7MÊÓƵ. And that is a moment that at Neches it's historic. We look back on that with so much pride. And so when you take a look at 7MÊÓƵ and NechesFederal Credit Union as organizations, there's a lot of alignment and a lot of similarity when you take a look at the vision and the mission of both organizations, and so, like at 7MÊÓƵ, for example, they educate and they empower students to enter the workforce and start their careers. And at Neches, we educate and empower the community with financial literacy, and those two things go so hand in hand. And so, as a true partnership that we have with 7MÊÓƵ, we want to support the growth of the university in any way that we can, in any way possible. And what better way to support the growth of the university than by being a part of Red Day? And for the past couple of years, Neches Federal Credit Union has hosted a challenge on Red Day, and for the past couple of years, that challenge has actually been unlocked before Red Day even begins. So, our challenge is for when the first $100 combined is donated to Alumni Affairs. That unlocks a $500 gift from Neches Federal Credit Union. And like I said, it's been unlocked prior to Red Day, even beginning with those beginning donors, and it's something we're super proud of. We selected Alumni Affairs strategically. There are a few different reasons why we selected them. And any Lamar alumni listening to this right now, they're going to understand and probably nod their heads at what I'm about to say. We have the best Alumni Affairs department in the nation. They are truly incredible. They support our alumni. They encourage our alumni. Whether that alumni received a promotion at work, got married, had a child, even had maybe a death in the family, they're sending sympathy cards. They're sending little newborn onesies. They're sending all of these little things to support their alumni beyond graduation. And so, any chance that we can to be a part of that at Neches, we would love to be a part of that. Also, we have 250 employees at Neches Federal Credit Union across Southeast Texas, and over 80,000 members. So I don't have the figures with me today. I wish I did, but we can assume a large portion of those are proud 7MÊÓƵ alumni, and so we love being able to support that, to support 7MÊÓƵ in so many ways, and to host a challenge on Red Day.

JOHN: I was going to ask you about how many employees are alumni, but even if we had to guess, probably at least over 50%, right?

CHARLEE: Yeah, I would think so.

JOHN: That’s fantastic.

CHARLEE: And we actually also have a tuition reimbursement program too. So we have a lot of current employees that are taking classes right now at 7MÊÓƵ.

JOHN: Yeah, lots of ways y'all are giving back. Well, thank you for being a part of this event. And then let's switch back over to Aron. You know, you're the host for this event. Like you said, it was your brainchild. But tell us, big picture wise, why is an event like Red Day so important for 7MÊÓƵ? And then, kind of explain the event. What's the website? How can folks get involved? All of the details.

ARON: Yeah, so I have a ton of information here to give, but I guess to answer your first question, the importance of Red Day is for the 7MÊÓƵ community, alumni, friends. If you love Lamar, it's your opportunity and your chance to give back financially. It's to help our students. It's to help continue to grow this incredible campus. If you haven't been, if you have not been on campus recently, if you're listening, I would highly encourage you to come on campus and just take a look. It is incredible. It's growing so fast, and I think that's a huge part of our leadership. I think it's a part of you as a donor giving back to this university. Not only does it, like I said, does it not only does it help our students, it helps our faculty, it helps our staff, it helps our buildings. It's so that's why we have Red Day. It's the opportunity for our alumni and fans of our friends of 7MÊÓƵ to give back. You know, I mentioned that this is year is year six, which is awesome. You know, last year was our biggest year yet in regards to donors and gifts. We had 610 total donors give last year, an increase of about 20% from the year prior. So that was tremendous. We had 727 total gifts from those donors. Again, huge increase from previous years. So last year was incredible. I have no doubt this year we're going to beat those numbers. Super excited about that! So this year, let's talk about this year. It is September 17 and 18. It's going to begin at 10 a.m. on the 17th. We're doing something a little different this year. So if you don't know, September 17 is 7MÊÓƵ's founding day. So September 17, 1923, is whenever we when that was our founding day, so we're doing something a little differently and something fun. Normally, it's 24 hours. Or to play off the founding day, we're doing it as 1,923 minutes. So it's going to begin at 10 a.m. on the 17th. Oh, and I have our website pulled up here. So as of this moment, recording this podcast, it is 19 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes, and two seconds away. Wow! So that is the countdown.

JOHN: And we did not plan that, folks. But that is awesome.

ARON: So, I'm having a little panic attack, thinking that's 19 days away. But no, but it's yeah, it's going to be so much fun this year. Our goal is 550 total donors, which last year we had 610. So I know we can beat that number.

JOHN: And last year's goal, not to cut you off, but last year's goal was 500. I know we surpassed it incredibly.

ARON: Blew it out of the water! And that was incredible to know. You know, every year we have a theme. So you know, Red Day is the overarching theme. But you know, every year we have some sort of like fun theme. Last year was Raise the Red. We've had Paint the Town Red, things like that. This year is RED-y for Launch, and kind of a play off. You know, NASA. Space, and we have one mission this year. The mission this year is to launch the future and change the lives of our students, and that's where you listeners come into play. That's where our donors come into play because of the gifts that come in for Red Day specifically. It will help launch the future and change the lives of our students. So we're super excited about that. So throughout the day, we're going to have, as always, some special features and highlights. One of those things is we're going to empower our community to come together, sign up to be a Red Day Champion. Yeah. What is a Red Day Champion? Well, here's what that is. So in years past, we've had champions. This year, we're doing something completely different. So you sign up. So be on the lookout for an email, a text to sign up to be a champion. You'll have. I'll send you a link to get signed up. You sign up. Whenever you do sign up to be a champion for Red Day, you're going to be given an exclusive tracking link. So with that link is where you share that with your friends, your family, anyone else that you want to to share that with. You share that link, and then you actually, if someone were to click on that link and make a gift on Red Day, you get points. Basically, you earn credits to get prizes. So the more times that you share that, the more times that people give via your link, you earn prizes. We have incredible things that we're giving away this year with the help of athletics alumni, like you mentioned, Charlie. We have an LU swag bag that's going to include some really cool stuff like a red day T-shirt, some you know some LU swag. We have some things that from athletics. They're going to give us a ticket package that's going to include tickets to football, baseball, basketball, all sorts of things. So, really cool prizes that you can actually earn just by sharing this link and people giving on that link. So it's going to be really really cool. Again, I'm going to send. I'll be sending you an email and a text to remind you to sign up about that. And throughout the day, I'll be sending you personal texting updates throughout the day. Hey, we’re at 200 total gifts. We you know let's yeah keep going things like that. Just keep it more exciting throughout the day. I mentioned things about local community and involvement, participation. Some things that you can do, and this is where Natchez is a huge part of this, and you can be too. Is on Red Day, encourage your friends, encourage your family, encourage your if you're a business a business owner, encourage your employees to wear red on Red Day. So again, that September 17 and 18th, encourage you to wear red. Another way that you can help is if you want to have some exclusive items in your in your you know if you are a business owner, if you want to have some exclusive items in your store to give out on Red Day, please do. I think that would be awesome. Another cool thing that we're having this year again are challenges. And Charlee, you mentioned this a little bit a second ago, we have various challenges throughout the day. One of those specifically is the one that Charlee mentioned is our alumni challenge. So again, just to reiterate what what Charlee just said is, and this again sponsored by Neches Federal Credit Union, is once $100 collectively is giving is given to alumni affairs, that's going to unlock $500 from Neches, so that huge. Thank you all so much for that. Another one that's sponsored by our LU Foundation Board of Trustees as our top three challenge. So the top first the first place area of campus academic college. Once they the the top once Red Day is finished for first place gets an additional $3,000. Okay. Second place $2,000 3rd place $1,000. So that's amazing. Huge incentive for sure throughout the day. We're still looking. I have so many ideas for challenges. So we're still looking for for sponsors to sponsor a challenge. So if you're listening and you want to sponsor a challenge, feel free to reach out and and we'll get you get you locked in for for a challenge, which would be awesome to have. Again, all this information can be found on our website for Red Day. It's lamar.edu/redday. Again, lamar.edu/redday. Again, if you go there, you'll find all this information as well.

JOHN: Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, like you said, you know, one word that you both have said today is unlock. You know, unlock these gifts, and I feel like Red Day helps to unlock opportunities for 7MÊÓƵ, for our students, faculty, staff. Sometimes this is important equipment that we need inside the colleges. So many opportunities, scholarships, all kinds of things. So definitely support LU. Thank you both for joining me today on the podcast. You shared a lot of great info in a short amount of time, so great job. And we can't wait for which what are the days? One more time?

ARON: September 17 through the 18th, starting at 10 a.m.

JOHN: There you go, 10 a.m. And like Aron said, be sure to you know at your company wear red and take a picture and put it on social media. Tag Lamar. That's what it's all about: spreading the good word. So, thanks again to both of you.

CHARLEE: Thanks for having us.

ARON: Thank you.

JOHN: That's a wrap on another episode. To catch the LU stories, just like Aron and Charlee's, be sure to search LU Moment wherever you get your podcasts to keep up with the events, activities, programs, and people right here at 7MÊÓƵ. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.