St. Jude is a recognizable name in the battle against cancer and other catastrophic diseases in children. It is unique in that patients are never asked to pay for their services beyond what is paid for by insurance. This week is St. Jude Awareness week at ETSU, and a campaign called Up ’til Dawn allows everyone in the community to contribute to St. Jude.
Up ’til Dawn, according to the St. Jude Web site, is a student-led-and-run program hosted by universities across the campus. It unites faculty, staff, students and the community to help support St. Jude. The name comes from the grand finale event where students take part in activities that keep them up until dawn.
At ETSU, students can get involved in a letter writing campaign to help raise funding for St. Jude. Students are encouraged to create a team, albeit not a requirement, of six that are each willing to gather at least 50 names and addresses. The goal for our campus is 50 teams or 300 addresses per team.
If the on-campus goal is met, the Up ’til Dawn organization estimates a 20 percent return with an average of $30 per letter. ETSU would be contributing $90,000 to a wonderful cause. A few suggested sources for gathering names and addresses are a Christmas card list, graduation list, parents’ address book or co-workers.
The ETSU chapter of Up ’til Dawn has been raising awareness through an information booth and tri-folds in the Culp Center, Pass It On clips, and an informative walking box.
They will also be holding an informational meeting on Oct. 5 from 2-4:30 p.m. at the Culp Center in Dining Room 3. They want this year to be a tremendous success and have a lot of on-campus participation.
Whitney Schultz, a sophomore psychology/pre-med major, explains, “Up ’til Dawn on this campus is very different from other schools because we have something very special in our community that others do not. Johnson City has one of four satellite hospitals for St. Jude. We have people in our community and surrounding communities that go to the hospital, which gives us even more reason to help this cause.”
The letter-writing campaign will be held from 2-7 p.m. on Oct. 26 at the CPA. There will be free food, prize drawings and music while teams fill out their envelopes. After the letters have been returned, the Up ’til Dawn organization will hold the finale, keeping the students up until dawn.
For more information about how you can help the campaign, e-mail uptildawnetsu@hotmail.com, visit their information booth in the Culp Center, or attend the information session.