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Printer-Friendly ModeStudents to write letters for hospital
'Up Til Dawn' fund-raiser being held for second straight year on Nov. 8
October 31, 2005 —
The SVSU chapter of the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital will be hosting the second-annual "Up Til Dawn" letter writing party on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
The event will last from 6 p.m. to midnight in the Multi-purpose room.
Working in teams of six, students will write letters to family members, friends, and anyone else they can think of to ask for donations for the Hospital. Team members are required to bring in at least 50 addresses to make letters out to. There is a $30 team donation fee.
According to Jamie Haag, director of the SVSU chapter, students are encouraged to bring in their mother's address book, Christmas mailing list, or anything similar. However, students are not allowed to bring in phone books.
There is no registration deadline, although Haag says they would like teams to sign up as soon as possible.
"There technically isn't (a deadline)," she says. "We'll even take teams that night."
The 50-address requirement is not a limit, Haag adds. Students are encouraged to write letters to as many people as possible within the six-hour limit.
"Every 50 letters sent gets the person a cool water bottle," she says, "aside from knowing they helped save a life."
The money is going directly to the Hospital in Memphis, where it is used to help pay for treatments for the children.
According to Haag, once the children are admitted, they do not pay anything. Their families are housed, given money for food, all of their treatment, and anything else the family needs.
Haag says the money is not only helping children in Memphis.
"The doctors there do research that is spread all over the world," she says. "They share any new discoveries that they make. Also, right now they have shipped many doctors down to work in New Orleans for children that have been taken out of hospitals because of the hurricanes down there."
The Memphis hospital's daily operating costs are a little over $1 million, Haag says, which are primarily covered by public contributions.
She says she saw exactly how those funds were used, as she, along her assistant director, Missy Miller, and Jennifer Jackson, assistant director of Student Life and the chapter's advisor, went down to Memphis over the summer to the hospital.
"From being down at the hospital, I saw these kids' faces and got hugs from parents, and knew that what we were doing was making differences," she says.
St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from more than 70 foreign countries, so Haag says "every little penny that we can raise counts.
"And this is so easy," she adds. "So far, just from our E-board sending out our 50 letters, we have raised over $1,200."
Haag is expecting this year's event to be much bigger than last year's, when only four teams participated. This year, 15 teams have already signed up.
The SVSU Dance Team and the Forte Hip Hop Dance Team will perform at the event. Poetry will be read, and there will be karaoke, free food, and prizes.