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\nUp ’til Dawn Executive Committee, responsible for planning
\nand executing the fundraiser<\/p>\n
\nUp ’til Dawn Executive Committee, responsible for planning
\nand executing the fundraiser<\/p>\n
In only the second year of a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fundraiser, UTC students stayed Up ’til Dawn and raised $48,000, beating last year’s effort by more than $15,000.<\/p>\n
A letter writing party last fall semester drew 240 students who were responsible for filling in pre-written letters to send to their family and friends, asking that they donate directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Recently on a Friday night, those students were welcomed back to Maclellan Gym with plenty of pizza, food, drinks, volleyball, dancing and inflatables, an “old fashioned lock-in,” as Juan Moreno called it. Moreno, Up ’til Dawn Director for UTC, led the Executive Board in this student-run endeavor. Shasta Westmoreland, Assistant Director of Admissions and Recruitment, served as faculty advisor to the Executive Board.<\/p>\n
“The purpose for the gathering is to celebrate, but really it is done in honor of all the children who are constantly having to stay up because they are getting lab work done or because they are struggling with their symptoms due to cancer,” Moreno said. “Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude, believed that no child should die at the dawn of day, therefore students go from late at night until the early morning. Around 5 a.m., we announce to everyone the amount we raised. The Executive Board doesn’t even find out till the unveiling,” Moreno said.<\/p>\n
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