Relay For Life aims for $75,000 donation goal

By: Stephanie Takach

Posted: 1/23/09

Relay For Life, an event in which teams and individuals raise awareness and donations for the American Cancer Society, will be held on campus April 4 and 5.

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity hosts the 12-hour event, but is looking for support from the entire Drexel community, according to Nick Hoppel, co-chair for the event.

"We want to hit everyone," Hoppel said. "There's a lot of student organizations and demographics that were not touched yet and have not heard of it."

Relay for Life is a national event in which teams of people raise funds to fight cancer and raise awareness for cancer prevention and treatment.

"We have been building our Colleges Against Cancer program for the past couple of years," Carly Chizik, income development specialist for ACS, said. "We're trying to get each college in the area a College Against Cancer chapter, which is where Relay For Life falls under."

Hoppel and the committee said they are hoping to make Relay For Life a tradition at Drexel because fighting for cancer never really ends.

"We want to just get out the idea of cancer awareness and how important it is to get these colleges involved," Chizik said. "They are the future, they are the voice of the future."

Last year, the event raised over $42,000 dollars, which almost doubled their goal of $22,000, according to Chizik.

This year, the fundraising goal is $75,000 and the organizers are looking to "step it up," Hoppel said.

"I think [the goal] is definitely attainable and I have faith that they will meet that goal this year," Chizik said.

In spite of the economic times, Hoppel is still looking for support from students, administration and sponsors. Chizik recognized that there may be some hardships this year, but instead of getting larger donations, participants can look to more donations in smaller amounts.

"I was adamant about going for $100,000, but we are shooting for something more plausible, Hoppel said.

He also added that one good thing about Relay For Life is that the overall idea is to fundraise, but that fundraising doesn't have to mean money out of your own pocket and can come through sponsors and attendance at the event itself.

The committee is looking to gain support from alumni, faculty and administration this year.

"Just having the community work on awareness and getting in touch with the right people in Drexel faculty and administration and promoting it to them will work, and even if they don't exactly interested in coming to event, just to get their support," Chizik said.

Hoppel said last year's involvement was mostly from Greek Life, but they are looking for more involvement from the Interfraternity Council on campus.

In order for schools like Drexel to work with surrounding campus, Chizik said the ACS holds a regional collegiate summit.

"[The summit is] once a year where all of colleges in PA get together to learn about Relay so this year I was really happy to see students from Penn, Drexel, Temple and West Chester getting together and getting to know one another," Chizik said.

The committee hosted an early-bird kickoff event at the Drexel Men's Basketball game against VCU to raise awareness about the event. The official kickoff date is Feb. 4, when teams can begin registering and raising donations.

The sports themed event will be held April 4 to April 5 from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in the Armory. Activities include a luminary ceremony, a survivor walk and an opening lap, among many others.

"The event in itself is a huge outing for those who have been affected by cancer survivors in anyway," Hoppel said. "They are all here for one reason; to uplift those who have survived, to fight back and to look for a cure."