Students Urged to Show School Spirit as Florida Fan Game Contest Nears End

School spirit is now more important than ever. Students, faculty and alumni are coming together for a big win.

Visit Florida and six Florida universities are teaming up this football season to invite thousands of people to the state of Florida.

The Florida Fan Game is a contest to help Florida’s tourism based economy and show which school has Florida’s best fans.

Will Seccombe, the Chief Marketing Officer of Visit Florida, said the goal of the Florida Fan Game is to bring more visitors to the Sunshine State and create job opportunities.

“Florida is well-known for tourism and this is a good way for the state economy to grow and to hire people with a job,” said Seccombe.

The contest began on Sept. 2, 2011 and will end on Dec. 5th. The winning university will win the title of having “Florida’s No. 1 Fans,” along with bragging rights.

Jasmine Sord, a first-year physical education student, said it would be nice to get positive attention on the university.

“Here in Tallahassee, since there are so many colleges around, it is very hard to get a job,” said Sord. “I believe it’s a great opportunity to get recognized, because our school might not be well-known by a lot of people outside of our marching band.”

To get more students, faculty, alumni, and friends involved, Brandon Anthony, marketing and promotions intern for the FAMU Athletic Department, is using social networking, the university’s athletic site, posting flyers on campus and passing ads out at athletic events.

“I want people in Florida and across the nation to know what Florida A&M is about, to increase school morale, increase fan support, and to prove that although FAMU is an underdog, we can still have a voice and can compete against Division I schools such as UF and Florida State,” said Anthony.

Visit Florida will also be announcing each ticket give away on the Share a Little Sunshine Facebook wall page. All contestants will have a chance to win free game tickets and have access to exclusive travel deals throughout Florida.

Participants need to follow the posts to find out when Visit Florida will be giving away tickets to this football season’s home game, which will be Nov. 5 against North Carolina A&T University. The teams who fan send the most invitations will win a grand prize: an 11-day, five-city Florida vacation for six people to Gainesville, Miami, Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa.

“The real opportunity is to support the school and state you love, which creates memories and jobs in the state of Florida,” said Seccombe.

To get involved and help FAMU win, send invitations to Facebook.com/Share a Little Sunshine. You can send unlimited invitations. For more information and invitations, go to www.ShareALittleSunshine.com