More than 120 volunteers will canvas Statesboro Tuesday collecting checks and donations during Ogeechee Technical College's iGot Campaign. ‘I Gave to Ogeechee Tech’ – iGot – is the annual fundraising drive for the Ogeechee Tech Foundation.

            Activities kick off at 8 a.m. in the multipurpose room of the Occupation Studies Building on the OTC campus.

            Dawn Cartee, president of Ogeechee Tech, said iGot donations go straight to the foundation, which helps pay for all the programs that tuition and state funding can’t cover at the Statesboro college.

            “Scholarships, equipment purchases, emergency funds for students, training opportunities for faculty, and other benefits which may not be covered by our state funded budget are the result of contributions to the Foundation,” Cartee said. “There are always many more applications for scholarships than can actually be funded. The greater the support of the iGot campaign, the greater the chance of providing assistance to students who have a need.”

            Beth Matthews, vice president of Institutional Advancement at OTC, said there’s a lot of equipment involved in some of the training provided by OTC.

            “You can’t train someone in radiology if you don’t have the machines,” she said. “Welding, automotive, veterinary tech, forestry, turf management, agriculture - whatever the jobs take, that’s the equipment we need to teach it.”

            IGot evolved from the previous ‘Five Days in May’ foundation campaign held in years past. However, so many Statesboro activities including, OTC, Georgia Southern and high school graduations occurred in May, they decided to moved it to March. The 2007 iGot campaign raised $195,560 for the foundation.