The VTSU Castleton Campus Activities Board has unveiled a new “CAB Bucks” rewards plan to get more students to attend events.  

“Rewards are so popular right now, everyone and their brother has rewards. It’s the new thing,” said graduate assistant for student activities, Marty Kelly III. 

Attending events like comedy shows and music performances can earn students up to 30 CAB Bucks to tack onto their grand total for the annual CAB auction, which this year is going to be held on May 2 at 8 p.m. in the 1787 Room. 

In the past, students would all receive the same amount of fake money when attending the auction. However, this led to some issues that unfortunately resulted in a rock paper scissors battle since the majority of people would save their allowance for the bigger prizes at the end.   

CAB clerk Megan Mureddu and Kelly knew that they needed to come up with a new way to auction off prizes, and thought, why not try to get event attendance up at the same time? 

“What is some intensive way to get students to come?” Mureddu said. 

After some brainstorming with her mom, who has previously worked in a recreation department, and a couple trial and errors, the idea of CAB Bucks was born. 

It was first brought up last spring semester by Mureddu and then approved by all CAB members to act on it for this semester. 

“Megan presented the idea to me and said it was something she was really excited about possibly doing in the future and I agreed that it was a fabulous idea,” said Secretary of Campus Activities Aurelia Leerkes. 

There are three different denominations of CAB Bucks students can receive, depending on what event they attend. All performances are worth 30 CAB Bucks and the more popular events, such as bingo and Stuff Your Own, are worth five CAB Bucks. All other events held by the CAB program are worth 15 CAB Bucks. 

After looking at the CAB expenses over the semester, members say they expect to have at least double the budget for this year’s auction and will feature amazing prizes like iPads, AirPods and video game consoles.  

During every event, Mureddu sits and makes a spreadsheet to track who went to what event to keep an idea of who has how many CAB Bucks, as well as to see if the new system is working in the right ways. 

The excel sheet also allows for a backup way to track how many bucks each individual student has in case they lose them, and also allows for a scam-proof system. 

In just three weeks of the CAB Bucks program running, the events have had more students attending than in the past. 

“I think the amount of people we got in these first three weeks were more than we got all of last semester,” Mureddu said. 

The CAB Bucks are getting more students engaged and allowing them to realize the opportunity they have to see something new. 

“It is SO good to hear that students are saying, ‘oh yeah I have to come to this event so I can get my CAB Bucks!’” Leerkes said. 

The future for the business card style CAB Bucks, which are designed and printed by Mureddu, seems bright.  

If responses to the program continue to thrive, they could be used for other purposes such as a possible collaboration with Fireside, Mureddu said. 

The CAB program welcomes feedback and even encourages it so they can pick up improvements along the way of their new journey. 

“These events are a great opportunity for people to get involved and have a great time, and our events are not for a certain demographic. Everybody can come and everyone can have a good time. It’s all about what you make out of it,” Mureddu said.