It seems like every year around this time, the Lanthorn staff writes an editorial urging the Grand Valley State University student population to get involved with the fundraising aspect of Battle of the Valleys, and here we are again. To be frank, we’re tired of writing that same editorial over and over.

We have more than 25,000 undergraduate students on campus right now. Last year, we raised only $7,022 for the Laker Children’s Fund, while our longtime rival SVSU raised $32,000 for suicide awareness and prevention. If you divide the amount we collected by every student enrolled, it comes out to about 28 cents per student at GVSU.

You read that right, 28 cents per student. Barely more than a single quarter.

SVSU has an undergraduate headcount of 9,766 students — a total of 15,234 students fewer than us. This means that if you divide their donation amount by each student enrolled there, they have raised $3.28 per student, a full $3 more per student than at GVSU.

While Battle of the Valleys is a fun sports rivalry, the underlying cause is to raise money and do good for the community around us. Our football team has beaten SVSU six out of the past seven years, a commendable feat, but our fundraising statistics are nowhere near that good.

If every undergraduate student at GVSU donates just ONE dollar this year, we would already have $25,000 — over three times as much as we raised last year. We have not won the fundraising competition since 2007. We’re getting dangerously close to going a decade without making any progress on this.

The whole idea of the Battle of the Valleys is to raise money for charity, and a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. A little goes a long way to help others, and both schools’ charities are more than deserving.

Students need to get motivated. They can do this by participating in some of the activities that the student senate and others are hosting throughout the week of Nov. 8. Student senate is doing their part by selling T-shirts with a new Battle of the Valleys logo on it for $10 all week.

If you have too many T-shirts in your closet already, take part in some games, such as the water pong competition on Thursday and the eating contest on Wednesday. These are easy and fun ways to get involved and contribute to a good cause.

Regardless of the way you decide to take part, let’s make this year’s Battle of the Valleys competition about more than just football. Let’s finally turn the trend around and make it about giving. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to cream SVSU both on and off the football field this year.