This year's Alumni Telethon, which ended Thursday night, raised $518,246 -- making it the most successful telethon in the event's 20-year history.
The nine-day event also set records for the greatest number of student volunteers and the greatest number of pledges.
More than 500 students volunteered their time to call alumni from phones set up in the top of the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts. They received donations to the College from more than 5,300 alumni.
Senior Intern for the telethon Sarah McAlister '96 said this year's goals were to raise $500,000, solicit 4,000 pledges and have 400 student callers.
The previous record for the greatest amount raised in the annual telethon was set in 1994 with just more than $517,000, McAlister said.
Senior Intern for the telethon Charlie French '96 told The Dartmouth last week that money from the Alumni Fund, which the telethon benefits, goes towards professors' salaries, financial aid, the athletic endowment, the Dartmouth Outing Club, foreign study programs and other campus organizations.
Jess Duda '96 raised more money than any other caller, according to McAlister. Jaime-Fay Bean '98 came in second place. Between the two of them, they raised more than $86,000, McAlister said.
She added that Duda and Bean were "strong forces behind the record-breaking year."
Duda said she went to call on the first day of the telethon and "had a really good time." She volunteered every night after that.
Duda said, "It was really fun to hear the different views the alums have on the College and the way they respond to the questions you ask them."
As number one caller, Duda won two round-trip airline tickets anywhere in the Continental U.S.
Bean said she had her choice of prizes and chose Dartmouth Mini-Coach gift certificates as her reward from making the second largest number of calls.
Bean said she called every day of the telethon except for the first one, and she volunteered because she thought she "kind of owed it to the College."
She said after she started, she was very successful in receiving pledges and continued to return each night of the telethon.
Bean said she got about 450 pledges from alumni.
She said she liked calling alumni from the 1970s because when she called older alumni, she often found people who had retired and could not give money or spoke with wives who said their husbands had recently died.
Calling older alumni "was too depressing," Bean said.
The organizations with the most members volunteering at the telethon were Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority, the Freshman Council and Beta Theta Pi fraternity, McAlister said.
