Grand Valley State University varsity athletes are gearing up to face the rest of the student body in showing their skills. The Pros vs. Joes Fundraiser will challenge students to try to beat athletes from most varsity teams to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

This is the first year that the Pros vs. Joes Fundraiser will take place. Keri Becker, associate athletic director, said the Student Athletes Advisory Committee wanted to put on an event that would attract students in order to raise money for Make-A-Wish.

“It’s meant to just be a fun event,” Becker said. “It’s for a great cause, and it’s something different and inexpensive… I hope that club sports will come out in this fun-filled atmosphere to challenge the other athletes.”

Make-A-Wish is the Division II GLIAC fundraising initiative. Andrew Darrell, a senior and president of SAAC, said that last year the group raised about $6,000 and about $10,000 the year before; the goal for this year is to beat last year’s amount.

“We wanted to see if the student population wanted to come and play us,” Darrell said. “We wanted to use our status as athletes for people to come play us and do something different. We’ve done a movie night in the past, but that’s something they can do any day of the week, so we wanted to change our event.”

Participants purchase tickets to be able to compete in different mini-games, and if they can beat a student athlete, they will be entered into a raffle for prizes at the end of the event.

All the varsity teams except women’s soccer and volleyball will be participating in the event, and the SAAC is still working on men’s basketball and football, Darrell said.

Some of the mini-games will include determining who can serve the hardest and fastest against the tennis team, and Darrell said the committee is trying to get the football kicker to come so students can test their kicking skills.

“It will be a lot of fun, and the money goes for a good cause,” he said.

The SAAC Pros vs. Joes Fundraiser event will take place Oct. 30 from 9 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. in the Kelly Family Sports Center. The cost is $3 to get in the door, and the price includes four tickets. Each additional ticket costs 25 cents, and each mini-game is one or two tickets.

For more information on the event, visit www.gvsu.edu/events/gvsu-saac-pros-vs-joes-make-a-wish.