Hey 11W,
This Saturday, February 25th, 2012, is BuckeyeThon. If you are a student at The Ohio State University or are familiar with charities on campus, I'm sure you know the event. For those of you who aren't, BuckeyeThon is a once-a-year, 12-hour dance marathon held at The Ohio Union where Ohio State students come together to celebrate hope with children in the area who have cancer. Students are encouraged to remain on their feet throughout the entire event and participate in fun activities as a sign of respect to the strength that these kids with childhood cancer have. Students participating as 'dancers' are required to raise at least $100 in donations, and last year the event helped raise over $222,000, which was donated directly to Columbus's own Nationwide Children's Hospital. While this isn't near Penn State's similar THON philanthropy which raised an astounding $10 million this year, it is still quite the accomplishment considering the fact their event has had a lot longer lifespan than BuckeyeThon. However, there's no reason to not set the bar equally as high when it comes to charity. In order to help support this Columbus Hospital which treats patients regardless of their family's ability to pay, and beat Penn State, we need help from Buckeye Nation.
While I'm sure many of you have many necessities in terms of costs that take up much of your income (feeding your kids, rent, tuition, 11W, etc.), I'm also sure that you know at least one person in your lifetime who has been unfortunately diagnosed with cancer. While I don't have kids and I don't necessarily know any children with cancer, I imagine the awful feeling that comes with the news of hearing a loved one has cancer is even worse when that said loved one isn't even old enough to drive.
I'm hoping that after you feed your kids, pay your bills, buy your books, or donate to eleven warriors, you can spare even $5 to help treat these kids who just want to live a normal life. If not, perhaps just do whatever you do at night to keep these kids in your thoughts. As a Junior, Saturday will be my first time participating in the event and I'm excited to finally see what it is all about, as well as do my part to give back to the Columbus Community that I love.
If anyone is interested, general donations can be made up until the event start (Saturday @8pm) at http://www.helpmakemiracles.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=882&participantID=96337. Once again, all money goes to the hospital and any other information you may want to read on the event can be found at http://buckeyethon.osu.edu/.
I'm sorry if this commits any posting errors, and I don't mean to solicit donors from the 11W Respect the Basement campaign. I just figured that as The Ohio State University's greatest blog, its readers should know about the University's greatest philanthropy. Thanks everyone for your time and go Bucks.
