This Saturday, UCF football will play its third game of the season against Furman, but amidst the roar of school spirit, a bigger cause will come into play. On Saturday, Sept. 19, tickets purchased online with a certain promo code for $16 will donate $2 to the Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools.

Early in the year, UCF Athletics Group Sales Coordinator Matt Leicht began coordinating with the Foundation to find a date for the event. It was decided the game against Furman was the best option for the fundraiser.

Even though the minimum price to get into a UCF game is typically $20 to $25, the price for the fundraiser was lowered to $16 to make tickets more affordable for families.

“We really want to be a part of the community and let the community know that we are one of them. By doing this with schools, it really lets people know we want to bridge that gap,” Leicht said.

A similar promotional event is held for Orange County during the season. Orange County typically buys 800 to 1000 tickets with the promo code, while Seminole County averages around 200 tickets, but the number is growing every year. Leicht took over the event last year and hopes to have Seminole County raise as much money as Orange.

The fundraiser is one of the Foundation’s Affinity Programs, where they try to partner with local groups. The Foundation is a charity solely devoted to benefitting SCPS.

“We exist to give money back to our school system in order to work in places where we can’t use public funding,” Foundation for SCPS Development Specialist Charneisha Pates said.

Those places would be the three priority areas the Foundation funds: increasing student achievement, removing barriers to learning and creating a high performing school district. Within these priority areas are the more well-heard-of programs like Arts Alive in Seminole, Families in Transition, and the Dividends Volunteer Recognition Breakfast. Funds raised from events like the UCF game will go towards these programs.

“The programs that we have in Seminole County, like FIT, help families in [our community]. It’s cool that we can all come together at a game and support the rest of the community,” frequent UCF football game attendee, junior Karley Harms said.

Money raised from these kinds of events is unrestricted and can be used in any program that needs funding.

“It’s a win-win situation. People get to go to UCF football games and [our schools] benefit,” Pates said. “It really doesn’t seem like that much, but when you look at how every penny we get goes back to our schools, it is.”

As of Thursday, Sept. 17, 78 tickets have been sold.

To purchase tickets, visit UCFKnights and use the promo code 2015SCPS.