While many students headed for Tigerland this weekend and later enjoyed a night’s sleep in their beds, some chose to spend their entire Friday night in the Rec Center listening to music and playing games.
The University’s “Up ’til Dawn” organization hosted its fourth Celebration of Life from 7:30 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Saturday.
Up ’til Dawn raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Students wrote letters in the fall to people they know and asked them to donate money for the hospital.
“Students form six-person teams for letter writing,” said Emily Meyer, the public relations coordinator for Up ‘Til Dawn. “We had about 600 students do letter-writing this year.”
The organization exists on more than 100 campuses across the nation, said Ryan Reczek, a collegiate marketing representative for St. Jude’s.
“The work is done in the fall and we have a party in the spring,” Meyer said. “Tonight is our way of thanking the students who worked so hard.”
The 12-hour-long Celebration of Life had a number of events to honor the year of fundraising.
The band Mixed Nuts performed, a DJ provided more music, special attendants spoke, an inflatable obstacle course was stretched across the basketball courts, a hip-hop dancer danced and a game similar to “Fear Factor” was put on.
Families of several St. Jude patients, some who had lost children and some whose children had survived, attended the event for at least some part of the night.
Butch Golson, the father of a late St. Jude patient, said he wanted to express his feelings toward the members of Up ’til Dawn.
“This is a big deal for the students,” Golson said. “They deserve all the credit. I wish more people could see what students are capable of doing.”
Korie Oliveri, a communication sciences and disorders junior, attended the event and said she was happy to know that she was helping people.
“When you see kids at the hospital, it makes you more empathetic toward people who have life-threatening illnesses,” Oliveri said.
Also on hand for the event was MTV-U, a branch of MTV only available on college campuses. It is available at LSU on channel 25, according to the Web site.
MTV-U is covering St. Jude Up ’til Dawn events for the next five weeks, traveling to different college campuses and filming events to see who raises the most money, said MTV-U video jockey George Oliphant.
“The program will run every week where we give an update on the school’s fundraising,” Oliphant said. “LSU is currently in second behind Kansas State.”
At 5 a.m., Up ’til Dawn presented a check for $118,000, the largest amount of money LSU ever raised for Up ’til Dawn. Last year Up ’til Dawn participants raised $94,000 for the research hospital, Meyer said.
“I think it is amazing everything these kids have done,” said Jeff Gardino, St. Jude manager of collegiate marketing. “Their main job is to help save lives and they understood that — we are lucky and privileged to have such caring, dedicated students working with St. Jude.”