About 50 students were up against the clock as they attempted to pop 720 balloons during an event dedicated to promoting financial literacy Wednesday.
The group gathered on the Plaza of the Americas to pop the purple balloons the UF Bateman Team put out to promote the launching of its SCORE! Campaign.
The team challenged students to pop the balloons in seven minutes and 20 seconds, but the crowd made it in just one minute and 57 seconds.
The 720 Balloon Pop Challenge aimed to spark interest and prove to people that financial literacy can be fun, said Bateman Team member Seeta Rebbapragada.
“The event went fantastic and we hope it will drive people to our website and our sessions,” she said.
The UF Bateman Team is composed of five fourth-year public relations majors who are given a client and must create a public relations campaign to be entered in the PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition.
The team’s client this year is Ally Financial Inc. Its campaign aims to promote and educate and Gainesville community about financial literacy and safe money management habits, Rebbapragada said.
The team spent last semester researching for the campaign, conducting surveys to find out about people’s financial literacy and discovering ways they could teach people about money management.
The team’s next step is to implement its campaign, which includes holding financial literacy sessions on campus, in local high schools and within the Gainesville community.
“It’s been 10 years since the UF team has won,” said team member Maura Reese. “It’s a good time to break the streak.”
