Participants in Baker University’s Up ’til Dawn event have something to celebrate.

As of April 27, $13,400.55 was donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, resulting from the 50 letters each participant sent out at the March 6 event.

“I was pretty darn ecstatic when I found out. I’m pretty sure I jumped up and down a little bit,” senior Brittany Lob, executive director of Up ’til Dawn, said. “I think for this being our first year, we weren’t 100 percent sure what to expect in a monetary way…but actually seeing the $13,000 was definitely amazing.”

Up ’til Dawn is a nationwide collegiate letter-writing campaign that generates funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Teams of six sign up to participate and each team member sends letters to 50 people to educate them about Up ’til Dawn and St. Jude’s.

The recipients of the letters then choose whether or not to donate.

"Each campus is assigned a representative from St. Jude's hospital that works with their program," Brett Bruner, director of greek life and health education, said. "Our representative said basically the people that donate will donate within two months of receiving (the letter)."<br/>The executive board had no idea how successful the event would be, but was pleased with the final results.The executive board had no idea how successful the event would be, but was pleased with the final results.
The executive board had no idea how successful the event would be, but was pleased with the final results.

“We were very, very happy with the outcome,” Lob said. “We reached our participation goal.”

Senior Brantley Bennett, who acted as teams chair of the executive board, was also excited with how Up ’til Dawn turned out.

“I was so proud that the Baker students responded the way they did,” she said. “I think it could have either gone as successfully as we were able to make it, or it was going to be a big flop, and I was just so happy it went the right way.”

With the success this year, Lob said Baker can be sure it will happen again.

“We just named our new executive board and had our first meeting, so we kind of handed off the positions and the new executive board is ready for the next year to come,” she said. “I know the new executive director, Katie Sellers, already has new ideas and stuff she wants to do for the coming year. So, we’re definitely excited again for the next time and ready to see what else we can do to improve the event.”