ROCHESTER, NY - The RIT men's hockey team is teaming up with the Tigers for Tigers at RIT to help with the global efforts for tiger conservation. Tigers for Tigers will be holding a special jersey auction during the RIT Brick City Homecoming game against Boston College at Blue Cross Arena on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 7:05 p.m.
The uniforms, which RIT will wear in warmups before its game against No. 7 Boston College, will be one-of-a-kind, starting at $100 and will be bid via silent auction at the arena, as T4T at RIT will have a booth set up at the top of the escalators in the main lobby. Bidding will conclude at the beginning of the third period. Proceeds from this event will go towards international tiger conservation efforts.
RIT is one of 14 schools that are involved with the national Tigers for Tigers coalition. There are 56 tiger mascot colleges and universities in North America and the goal of the national coalition is to get all the schools involved to help save the vanishing species.
Tigers of the world are unfortunately heading down the path of extinction within the next decade. There are 3,200 tigers left in the wild that endure threats of habitat destruction, poaching, and revenge killing. However, it is possible to dramatically impact the conservation of these tigers by working together.
The goals of the national Tigers for Tigers coalition are to make a positive impact on the tiger conservation, associate the tiger mascot pride with the tigers of the wild and establish passion for the T4T organization, and create conservation professionals out of student leaders. For more information visit
http://www.t4tcoalition.org.
T4T at RIT will be holding a 5k race on Sunday, Oct. 19 to add to the fundraising efforts. Last year, the RIT organization raised $1,175 with support at both the Brick City and Freezefest 5,000-meter races. For more information about the efforts at RIT visit its facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/T4TRIT.
"I really can't express how great I think Tigers for Tigers is," said third-year volleyball captain Abby Higgins, an active member of T4T at RIT for the two years it has been on campus. "I don't think people understand how desperately the tiger species needs help, so it's nice to have a group of people working to raise awareness. We're incredibly grateful and very excited for the men's hockey warm up jersey silent auction. T4T really appreciates the support that we've received from the team. This is such a great opportunity to not only raise money for tiger conservation but to also reach so many people at once. I'm really hoping the blacked out tiger logo on the warm up jerseys will help people realize the gravity of the situation. If we don't act now, the RIT logo might as well be blacked out permanently because our mascot will become a thing of the past."
"We are very excited about this weekend," commented Matt Partacz, fellow T4T member. "We have worked really hard with the hockey team and the national coalition to make this event happen. It will hopefully be our best turn out yet."
On twitter, follow hashtag #SAVEOURMASCOT for more information.
