Thanks to a group of LEAD Scholars Academy first year students in Rick Falco’s class, more money is being raised for children’s cancer research.
One of the students involved in the project, freshman communication sciences and disorders major Joshua Cammarn, was a leader in the project. He said that they wanted to help the St. Baldrick’s Foundation because it seeks to raise money to fund the most promising research for cures for childhood cancers and give survivors longer, healthier lives.
Cammarn said “more children are lost to cancer in the US than any other disease. Less than four percent of the National Health Institutes budget is allotted to childhood cancer research. In the past 20 years, only three new drugs have been developed to treat childhood cancers.”
In the fall semester, the group of students put on St. Baldrick’s signature event where students raise money and shave their heads in support of the children going through treatments. Twenty-one Knights shaved their heads and raised over $4,000 for the foundation.
The group hosted another fundraising event, “Oobleckerating Childhood Cancers” in April raising $300. Oobleck is a green slime that turns from liquid to solid form with force. The group filled a 7×3 foot container with the substance and asked for a $3 donation from students to play with it or walk or run across it, “because every three minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer,” Cammarn explained.
It is made from corn starch, water, and of course green food coloring; the Grain Processing Corporation donated 400 pounds of corn starch to assist in the event’s success.
The group has grown in numbers and is close to becoming a Registered Student Organization ─ St. Baldrick’s Knights ─ this summer.
Sydne Rubeor, freshman journalism major, joined her fall classmates this semester after seeing their success with the first event. “We aren’t just another organization asking for donations, we want students to be able to get involved, have fun and gain knowledge about lack of funding for childhood cancer research,” Rubeor said.
“We hope to grow this as big at Knight-Thon one day,” Cammarn said.