Two students raise $6,000 for Red Cross

Management professor Jeffrey Pollack last month gave students in his Innovation and Entrepreneurship class at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business a project titled “14 dollars, 14 days.” Students were asked to raise as much value — defined at their discretion to mean social, monetary or other value — as possible in 14 days with 14 dollars.

Kate Heyer of Atlanta and Kathryn Esty of Cumberland, Maine, both seniors, designed a raffle for a vacation including airfare for two at an all-inclusive villa at Scrub Island Resort in the British Virgin Islands, donated by a University of Richmond contact.

The donor asked the pair to raise $6,000 (the value of the vacation) for a charity of their choice in exchange for the trip. Heyer and Esty decided to raise money for the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts for recent earthquake and hurricane victims. They sold tickets on and off-campus. After 14 days, Heyer and Esty had raised $4,491. They extended the contest for 11 days and raised the rest of the $6,000.

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