A few hardy Gamecocks crowed in a new day Saturday with their participation in Up ‘til Dawn, an event that benefited St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital fundraising event.
The event, which asked participants to raise at least $100 to be a member, required students to stay awake from 12 a.m. until 6 a.m. at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. Teams of six students participated in challenges and activities throughout the night, celebrating for the students’ fundraising efforts.
“We felt like USC had a lot of potential since Columbia is a market that already has a lot of events for us,” said Maya Smith, St. Jude’s representative for the Columbia area. “We were really looking for other ways to raise St. Jude awareness in the area.”
Carly Gillet, a second-year business student and the recruitment chair for the event, and Caroline Riffel, a second-year fashion merchandising student and the event’s production chair, manned the check-in tables the night of the event.
“I personally wanted to be involved in this just because it was something new,” Riffel said. “I was involved last year with the Dance Marathon up all night event, so this was something I was kind of familiar with anyway.”
Thirty-eight teams registered for the event and raised a total of $12,344 by the kickoff of the night. And although they didn’t meet their initial goal, Gillet said the team was still proud of what they accomplished.
“Though this is our first year on campus, we set a really high goal,” Gillet said. “We didn’t quite reach it, but I still think we hit a really good mark for being new.”