By: Danealle Khaimskiy<\/p>\n
This past weekend, Bradley University participated in its third annual St. Jude Up ‘Til Dawn event. Students gathered together in Markin, as they listened to the stories of various survivors and former St. Jude patients. Up ‘Til Dawn stayed true to its nature, when the fundraiser started at 11:30 pm and ended at 6:00 am with the rising sun. Below, is an online print piece accompanied by a short pack, which was shot during the event.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7qDyNw03sKg<\/p>\n
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Students stay ‘Up ‘Til Dawn’ for those who can’t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n At 30 minutes before close, Markin Recreation Center was anything but docile. The lobby was littered with students dressed in costumes ranging from the Powerpuff Girls to sorority letters. All of them waiting for the third annual Up \u2018Til Dawn fundraising event.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done the event all three years,\u201d Side Events Co-Chair Julia Koukol said. \u201cBut this is the first time I am on the exec board.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike in Cinderella, at the stroke of midnight Up \u2018Til Dawn just got the party started. The emcees for the night were from 98.5 Kiss FM and introduced the night\u2019s first event: a presentation from a St. Jude patient and his family.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing in the hospital was scary,\u201d Carson \u201cSuper C\u201d said. \u201cBut my friends from home sent me a joke box, which made it less scary. Do you want to hear one?\u201d<\/p>\n The crowd answered with a resounding yes and even replied in unison when Super C started with \u201cknock knock.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s there,\u201d answered the crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cA broken pencil,\u201d Super C said.<\/p>\n \u201cA broken pencil who?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNever mind. It\u2019s pointless.\u201d<\/p>\n The crowd broke out in laughter and Super C turned a slight shade of pink as participants cheered him on. After the opening ceremonies, participants were ushered into the pool area for their first challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked really hard to get the pool reserved,\u201d Koukol said. \u201cIt took a lot of planning of the event to make sure the pool was unharmed.\u201d<\/p>\n For the competition, teams built boats out of water bottles, string and cotton balls. The team\u2019s boat that holds the most metal washers without sinking wins.<\/p>\n While some teams participated as a way to help the community and support their friends on the executive board, others had a more personal connection.<\/p>\n \u201c[Up Til\u2019 Dawn] means everything [to me],\u201d Courtney Nietzel said. \u201cI want to help [the children] in anyway possible, by providing them with the best care and letting them know people care about them, support them and that we will be behind them every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n Neitzel\u2019s boyfriend was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma Cancer a year ago. Though he is in remission now, Neitzel said she is still staying Up Til\u2019 Dawn for him. With the help of her team, All Night For The Fight, fundraised about $2,000 for St. Jude Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n Though the night started at Markin, in an M. Night Shyamalan twist, it ended in Renaissance Coliseum. At 3:00 am, the emcees cut the music to announce that participants are to grab some glow sticks and head down to the coliseum.<\/p>\n \u201cOur original plan was to have the entire event at the coliseum,\u201d Assistant Executive Director Kait Herkert said. \u201cBut there was a game there that night and we figured the move would be a good way to wake people up.\u201d<\/p>\n In the spirit of keeping participants awake, Monster energy drinks and carbohydrate heavy snacks were passed out.<\/p>\n The event came to a close with a balloon drop and the announcement of the grand total fundraised.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite part of the night was getting to climb up to the roof of the coliseum to drop the balloons,\u201d Koukol said. \u201cIt was really awesome seeing everyone\u2019s surprised faces.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of the six-hour night and six month fundraising period, Bradley students were able to donate more than $43,000 to the St. Jude Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n Bradley University students stay up for good, raises $43,000<\/b><\/p>\n Bradley University students and local business came together for one night to help raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Danealle Khaimskiy This past weekend, Bradley University participated in its third annual St. Jude Up ‘Til Dawn event. Students gathered together in Markin, as they listened to the stories of various survivors and former St. Jude patients. Up ‘Til Dawn stayed true to its nature, when the fundraiser started at 11:30 pm and ended at 6:00 am with the rising sun. Below, is an online print piece accompanied by a short pack, which was shot during the event. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7qDyNw03sKg <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,205],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","hentry","category-general","tag-com425","tag-public-journalism","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}