On Thursday Sept. 23 West Texas A&M University announced the One West fundraising campaign at Buffalo Stadium.

The event included a small awards ceremony, eight interactive booths from different colleges and departments at the university, the WTAMU marching band playing the fight song, speeches from donors and an ending firework display.

The One West campaign is to promote WTAMU as a whole in order to achieve WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World. WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World is a long-range plan for the university. The goal of One West is to raise $125 million dollars by the year 2025.

Dyke and Terry Rogers announced that WTAMU has already reached 64% of that goal, which is $80 million dollars.

One West has three major priorities, people, programs and places.

People are the main focus for the campaign, 60% of the fundings will go towards students, faculty and staff.

“This campaign is first focused on people, and students are the most important people on this campus,” said Walter Wendler, President of WTAMU.

Programs and places will split the other 40% of the fundings evenly. Programs are meant as the organizations on campus and research, and places being the facilities and buildings at WTAMU.

The One West event hosted donors and supporters of WTAMU. It was designed for the donors to interact with students and visibly see the work that is being done because of the donations given.

“I’m a nursing major, so finances are of course difficult at times, so these donors have been extremely helpful for my education,” said Courtney Reed, senior nursing major and Rogers WT scholar.

The event concluded with the revealing of the One West campaign video that detailed the meaning of WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

For more information about the One West campaign, visit https://www.wtamu.edu/one-west.