Cake Breaks Are Back to Raise Money for Binationals

To raise money for new binational uniforms, TCS polideportivo teams brought back the  tradition of cake breaks for the last two weeks.

After the price of the 2017 Barranquilla Binationals turned out to be higher than expected, the Athletic Council; made up of the six team captains from the girl’s and boy’s volleyball, soccer and basketball teams, found an alternative to raise money in order to cover the expenses.

“It was done to offset costs because the binationals are a little bit more expensive this year, it’s almost a 1,900,000. The money raised was used to purchase the t-shirts, the training shirts and the hats,” Freddy Badillo, Head of the Athletic Council, said.

Besides from the two uniforms each player is required to buy; a yellow and a blue one,  it’s a tradition to have shirts that say Columbus Volley, Basket or Soccer, which they wear outside the matches.

“Everyone began asking if the Columbus´ shirts and petos were included in the budget, and we were actually short on money. Our Senior cake break was so successful, that we thought of doing it again,” Sofia Gonzalez, Girl’s Volleyball Team Captain, said.

It was the six captains who took care of all the planning, as the Polideportivo Office wasn’t actually involved in the process. Each team member was in charge of bringing a different product to sell during the cake break.

“We divided the teams into sections, and in the three different days that we sold, the students brought food that was sold to other students,” Pablo Florez, Boy´s Basketball Team Captain, said.

The profits made by each individual team were used to offset each team’s necessities, according to their number of players. Some athletes agree that the cake breaks were efficient and generated a fair profit. Cake breaks were common in Elementary School but have lost popularity in Middle and High School.

“I think that the cake breaks were a really good idea, as they helped us raise the money we needed. Also, everyone in my team was very collaborative,” Juan Diez, 9th grade Volleyball player, said.

Other students believe that the profits turned out to be lower and support other ways of raising money, or even paying an additional cost.

“I do not think it was efficient because I paid about 50,000 pesos for some brownies, and I think I could have just given that money or even less what we were missing of the remaining uniforms,” Laura Agudelo, 11th grade Soccer Player, said.    

The 91 athletes traveling to Barranquilla next week now have t-shirts, petos and hats, which were bought with the money raised during the last two weeks.  

“The cake breaks were really successful, and because of the tight timing we even have extra money that we might plan on spending for Copa Columbus,” Flores said.