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The 1,400 students who participated in the UDance Marathon, held Apr. 26, did more than just dance, rock out to live bands and have fun. They raised approximately $23,000 for pediatric AIDS and cancer research.
Significant contributions will be made to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, Alicia Dreher, UDance executive coordinator, states in an e-mail message. Joe McDonough, president of B+ (pronounced Be Positive), started the organization after his 14-year-old son Andrew McDonough died from complications related to a rare form of leukemia.
Dreher considers the event's highlight to have been when four cancer survivors took the stage: Savannah Pauley, 10; Molly Anderson, 6; Kara Kelly, 5; and Evan Nickle, 4.
"You can see firsthand why it is so important that we do events like this to raise money and fund research to help those who deserve it the most," Dreher says.
The four children are "Heroes" representing the B+ foundation. Joe McDonough, president of B+, started the Heroes Program to honor critically ill children. He paired eight Heroes with university fraternities and sororities, which made them honorary brothers and sisters. The other four children were too sick to attend UDance.
"We want to put these children up on a pedestal and give them a happy day," McDonough says. "It's also a life-changing experience for the Greeks."
Senior Zach Wendel of Phi Sigma Pi is one of the Greeks whose life was touched by a B+ Hero. Wendel's newest Phi Sigma Pi brother is also the youngest. Four-year-old Evan inspired and encouraged the PSP brotherhood to participate in UDance, Wendel says. PSP raised more than $1,500.
"The first time I saw him I thought, 'Wow, I can't believe someone that young could be afflicted with something as horrible as cancer,' " Wendel says.
PSP president Lauren Vascellaro was also moved.
"We were no longer raising money for children suffering from cancer, but for Evan, our UDance Hero, new friend and honorary member," Vascellaro states in an e-mail message.
Sophomore Jay Mercandetti, fundraising chair of Sigma Phi Epsilon, says it's important for the members of Greek life to meet the B+ Heroes.
"That's what it's all about," Mercandetti says. "It's more personal when you see a face."
Evan's mother Kim Nickle says she can't thank the members of PSP enough for their support.
"They really went above and beyond," Nickle says.
She says the normally shy Evan doesn't like big groups, but he appeared to be having a great time at UDance tossing around a beach ball with his Greek brothers and sisters.
Evan underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his abdomen and then chemotherapy, a stem-cell transplant and radiation. Doctors originally gave him a 20 percent success rate. He's currently cancer-free.
Doctors recently removed a mass from Evan's lung, which was benign.
"He's resilient - he never complains," Nickle says. "He's going to do great things."
Last year, Kristen Anderson took her daughter Molly to the doctor to examine her swollen lymph nodes and was told she had T-cell leukemia.
Although Molly is now in a period of maintenance - a less intense therapy for patients in remission - she struggled with her initial treatment.
For five weeks, Molly didn't talk, Anderson says. She was put on anti-depressants and, eventually, was able to tell her mother the reason for her silence. Molly had experienced so many negative side effects from her treatment that she had chosen to remain silent rather than be unpleasant.
"I didn't want to be mean," Molly told her mother.
At UDance, Molly was showered with attention by her adopted sisters of Alpha Xi Delta and had her wish fulfilled - she danced with a college boy. Not only that, but he gave her a peck on the cheek. After the dance, she went home to prepare for her first day of kindergarten the following day.
Anderson says the B+ Heroes program and an event like UDance help families feel less alone and give them something to look forward to. She also stresses the importance of raising funds for research.
Dr. A.K. Rajasekaran, director of Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research, states in an e-mail message that research is underfunded for many childhood cancers because they "are unique and rare compared to many adult cancers, making it a small and less profitable market with little financial benefit for pharmaceutical companies to develop these drugs."
Although childhood cancer is different from adult cancer, the diseases are treated the same way. The side effects from adult treatment can often be damaging, if not fatal, to a child.
Graduate student Justin David, who is pursuing his doctorate in biology, does cancer research at NCCCR. David says adults have fully developed cells, and cancer is a result of cell mutation. Children, however, are still developing cells and their cancer starts within the normal cells.
When adults are treated with chemotherapy drugs and radiation, those treatments kill both the tumor and active cells. Thus, side effects often include hair loss and anemia.
When children are treated with lower doses of adult drugs, it kills both cancerous and normal cells, which they still need to develop. The side effects for children are toxic, affecting their bones, neurons and still-growing brains.
With this treatment, a child's immune system is severely compromised and it's often an infection, not the cancer, that is fatal.
"It's a sledgehammer approach," David says, "getting everything in the body."
Even if a child does survive cancer and its treatment, he or she may experience some degree of brain damage in the future.
David says there's so much competition for funding from the government-run National Institute of Health that charitable giving is vital, regardless of the amount.
"If every UD student, about 20,000, gave $10," David says, "that adds up to $200,000. That's significant. Do what you can with the resources that you have. It's the heart of giving that matters."
Freshman Ali McDonough, Andrew's sister, donates as much time as possible to B+, and she plans to pursue a career in which she can use her experience to help others. She wants to be a therapist who will counsel kids with cancer and their siblings.
Even before her brother's cancer touched her life, she learned about genetics in seventh grade and says she had planned to become a geneticist who would focus on a cure for leukemia.
McDonough says Andrew and Ali were like twins, and thinks they still are.
"I say I have two children," McDonough says. "I can just only hug one of them."
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