In the early hours of Saturday morning, when most of Columbia was dark and quiet, a group of students colored, danced and made duct tape fashion designs as part of USC's third annual St. Jude Up 'til Dawn event. The participants raised a total of $18,166 for St. Jude Children's Hospital.
The event was held at Strom Thurmond Wellness & Fitness Center from midnight until 6 a.m. The participants were divided into teams and could earn points through various challenges throughout the night, including competitions at the event and through social media. The team representing Chi Omega sorority was the top fundraiser and won the team spirit award for earning the most points throughout the night.
Early in the event, St. Jude patient Haley Thomas gave a short summary of her experience with the hospital and thanked the event participants. At seven years old, Thomas was sent to St. Jude, in Memphis, Tennessee, for life-threatening hemorrhaging in her eyes. She was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma, a brain tumor on her pituitary gland that hasn't given her much trouble in recent years. Now a junior at Pelion High School, Thomas is incredibly grateful to the hospital for saving her life and caring for her since.
"The best thing that I have ever been to up there is the St. Jude prom," she said.
The first of three challenges that the teams faced was a portrait competition called "Pretty Much Picasso," in which each team had to trace and recreate one of its members on a large piece of paper. The drawings were judged by creativity and accuracy. Teams included details such as backgrounds and hobbies of the member they drew, as well as quotes and phrases they associated with St. Jude and the event.
The second challenge, called "Sheep and Shepherd," required one team member at a time to direct the rest of their blindfolded teammates through an obstacle course using only their voices. The teams had to collect words from five different baskets at the finish line of the course, so they had to go across more than once. For each round, a different team member acted as "shepherd."
The third challenge, "Fashionista," had teams create some sort of fashion design using only duct tape and plastic wrap to protect the model's skin and clothes. There were many different colors of tape, even one with a 'Star Wars' design, and the designs ranged from formal dresses to a bikini to hula attire. The models strutted along a runway, and one team's model took it to a new level when she did a flip toward and away from the judges' table.
The sorority Delta Delta Delta had several teams attend the event, and their philanthropy chair, first-year public health student Valerie Pruc, also participated with a couple of her sisters. Because St. Jude is the sorority's philanthropy and because of a recent trip to the hospital itself, Pruc said she was inspired to get more involved.
"I feel like this is the least I can do to try and support St. Jude," Pruc said. "For me to just stay up for one night — that's nothing compared to what these families have to go through."
Third-year nursing student Megan Gallagher said that she has known about St. Jude for a long time because her parents have given donations throughout her life.
"I think cancer has really touched everyone's lives, which is really sad," she said. "But being here, it gives you a chance to give back and really feel like you're helping and being a part of something."
In between the challenges, the participants were entertained with a hypnotist show and Zumba led by three local instructors. The energetic, interactive nature of both of these kept participants awake and excited throughout the six hours of the event.
Erin Brunelle, third-year public relations student and public relations director for USC's St. Jude Up 'til Dawn said that they usually invited singers or other similar performers, which didn't keep the participants moving or awake as well.
"We had no one here that could do it because it was Easter weekend, and so we were like, 'Okay, let's do a hypnotist,'" Brunelle said. "And then I saw another school did Zumba ... so I suggested that like a week ago, and somehow we found someone."
St. Jude is also the philanthropy for the fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon, which is how third-year finance and accounting student Wesley Long heard about the event. One of his fraternity brothers is on the executive team for the event, and Long was on the team "Caroline's Boys."
"It just shows that we care," Long said. "We care enough where we will come here and support St. Jude's instead of whatever other plans we would typically make."
The St. Jude Up 'til Dawn program developed from a letter-writing program into its current state in 2011. Maya Smith, senior regional development representative for St. Jude's fundraising branch, works with the USC chapter to organize the event and establish an executive team each year.
"Every year our goal is to reach more students and get bigger and better," Smith said. "The hope is just to be able to really spread more awareness about St. Jude at USC."
The executive team started planning the 2016 event last April, Brunelle said. She got involved after attending the event in 2015.
She said she ended up falling in love with it "I think mainly because St. Jude is the only hospital of its kind ... because no patient or their family has to pay for anything there."
The money raised at the event will go to help pay for care at St. Jude, which also works as a research hospital and shares its research with other hospitals. Brunelle said that this is particularly important because saving one child can mean saving many more lives elsewhere.
Brunelle hopes that the USC chapter will continue to grow. She plans to continue for another year as public relations director and believes that her experience this year will help with next year's event. The unique environment at St. Jude is a big part of what makes her want to keep working with them, she said.
"They're just so happy. When you think of cancer, you don't think happy," Brunelle said. "But they have 'No Mo' Chemo' parties and St. Jude prom and all that stuff, so it's a lot less of a hospital and a lot more of a family."