Sleep lost to aid victims of childhood cancer |
| Posted by Administrator on Nov 19 2008 at 2:12 PM |
Photo by Megan Wenz
UNK students address and stuff their donation envelopes at Up 'til Dawn on Nov. 11.
By Megan Wenz
Antelope Staff
One situation families never want to find themselves in, discovering their child has cancer. To make matters worse, they often learn their insurance will only cover half of the child's treatment and they must find up to $1 million to cover the remaining costs. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital understands this hardship and exists to help families like these in need.
St. Jude is a research and treatment facility for children diagnosed with cancer located in Memphis, Tenn., where the cost of running the facility for one day averages over $1 million. But families of cancer patients can seek help knowing the life of their children won't rely on what they can't pay.
St. Jude is unique in the fact that no family pays what their insurance does not cover.
With just the cost of running the facility for one day so much, donations are a must, and St. Jude recently turned to UNK and asked for help in their quest with an event geared towards college campuses.
UNK is one of only 265 campuses selected to participate in the Up 'til Dawn fundraiser where students came together in teams of six to send letters requesting donations from friends and family. Each team member was asked to send 50 letters. The executive board of 18 students recruited 52 teams. Students from all over campus came to participate on Tuesday, Nov. 11 in the Nebraskan Student Union. They spent hours signing and addressing letters to everyone they know to help families at St. Jude.
Brett Collins, supervisor of Greek Programs, said this charity uses the greatest portion of donations for treatment, not overhead costs. "The great thing about St. Jude is you know where your money goes. You know that 85 cents of every dollar goes directly to research and treatments," Collins said.
"Just the executive team has written their 50 letters and made over $4,000 already," Sarah Grosz, entertainment co-chair of UNK's Up 'til Dawn event said.
There are five phases to the Up 'til Dawn fund raiser including the awareness week and the actual Up 'til Dawn event, held Nov. 11. The results for the donations that UNK raised will not be released until one of the last phases in a few months.
Collins is optimistic about the progress so far. "We couldn't ask for better energy and volunteers. Couldn't ask for a better turnout," Collins said. "I want their to be a day when we lock the doors of St. Jude for good and throw the keys in the Mississippi River because we won't need St. Jude...no one will have cancer."
Since this is the first year UNK has hosted the event, the executive team was large. Two students teamed up as chairs to ensure that every aspect of the event planning was covered. For all the hard work and dedication the executive team has put forth, they will be rewarded with a trip to St. Jude hospital to see what all their time and work has done for the facility. The executive board will go to Memphis next semester.
"We had a great turnout. We worked really hard, and the campus came together in a big way to help make Up 'til Dawn a success at UNK," Kendra Francke, co-director for Up 'til Dawn said.
