It’s been said that the Wahoo, the fish that shares its name with UVA students, can drink twice its weight in water. But the Wahoo isn’t all play—this heavy drinkin’ seafarer is also pulling its weight as a fundraiser for UVA’s Alumni Association.
If you’re a recent graduate of the University, you may have received this e-mail: “Reminder: Feed the Fish.”
 Find the subliminal UVA message in this Wahoo fish, designed to encourage alums to open their wallets for the $3 billion capital campaign. |
The Alumni Association sent out a fold-out brochure featuring a Wahoo a couple of months ago, resembling something that might adorn the walls at Red Lobster. “Maybe it’s hanging on the wall in your home or office right now,” the e-mail reads. Heck, it might even be stuck on the fridge, if the Wahoo’s yachting aesthetic didn’t totally clash with the typical post-college refrigerator decor of student loan bills, ABC store receipts and pornographic magnetic poetry compositions.
The Wahoo swam into the e-mail boxes of young alumni last month, meant to inspire the type of nostalgia that makes one’s hand wander toward one’s checkbook. Despite the annoying gimmicks, it seems a fair number of UVA graduates have gotten reeled in whether by fish, family or other alumni fundraising tactics: The UVA Fund, managed by the Alumni Association, had $24,335,807, as of March 31, almost quintuple its $5 million capital campaign goal.
C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
