An interest meeting will be held tonight for Mississippi State University students wanting to participate in this year’s Up ‘til Dawn program to benefit St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital in Memphis. It will be at 6 p.m. in Allen 13.
Brittany Clark, junior sports studies major and this year’s recruitment chair, said Up ‘til Dawn is a campus-wide, student-led fundraising effort for St. Jude, which treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.
“Up ‘til Dawn is very important because we are raising funds for a hospital that does not charge patients or their families for the treatment received at the hospital,” she said. “It is a place of hope.”
Clark said the purpose of Up ‘til Dawn is to spread awareness to the MSU campus about the hospital and to encourage people to get involved. The main event is “Unite to Fight,” a series of activities to raise awareness for childhood cancer, but the group also does side events throughout the year.
“We are still in the process of planning our March 29, 2011, finale event, but some of last year’s activities included Lab Rats performances, pictures with Bully, Dan Mullen, the Egg Bowl trophy, and Phil Turner, a stroll off and a ‘mock-tails’ area with free food and drinks,” she said.
Clark said the group raised approximately $8,000 last year. Its goal is to raise $19,644, roughly $1 per MSU student.
She said she got involved last year, because the regional St. Jude’s representative called and asked her if she would be interested in being recruitment chair.
“Being philanthropy chair for Tri Delta and having a friend that was treated at St. Jude’s, I was very eager to get involved,” Clark said. “When I came to college, it was my goal to try to give back to St. Jude’s as they had given my best friend hope.”
Mikhail Sanders, sophomore biochemistry major, said she believes it is important to get involved on campus and Up ‘til Dawn is a good way to do that.
“It gives [the children] something to look forward to,” she said. “I think it supports them good.”
Clark said St. Jude’s increased the cure rate for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer, from a 6-percent survival rate in 1962 to 94-percent survival rate today.
“We share the Danny Thomas dream that no child should die in the dawn of life,” she said.
Derek DePasquale, junior mechanical engineering major, said St. Jude’s is necessary because there are people who really need help and deserve it.
“If they need help, they need help, and cancer is obviously terrible,” he said.
Clark said Up ‘til Dawn executive board consists of ten undergraduate students, one graduate student and an faculty advisor.
“I am so excited to see what this year has in store for Up ‘til Dawn and can’t wait to get started,” she said.