This article was originally published prior to June 2, 2013.  Due to a change in content management systems, the initial publication date is not available.

“Cancer doesn’t sleep, so neither should we.” That’s the slogan members of the Up ‘til Dawn executive board are advocating as they plan for the event at Baker University.

Up ‘til Dawn is a nationwide program geared toward college students to raise awareness and generate funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to fight cancer in children.

“It’s proved to be a big success at other universities, so we thought it’d be a good time to start it at Baker,” senior Brittany Lob, executive director of Up ‘til Dawn, said. “We’ve had two awareness weeks throughout the year. One back in November to get people asking what this Up ‘til Dawn thing is and we wanted people to know who we were and about St. Jude’s. And the second, just last week, was geared more toward getting teams and people to sign up for the event.”

Senior Brantley Bennett, teams chair of the executive board, said teams of six people are being put together. Each team member will then fill out a list of 50 names and addresses of people he or she would like to send a letter to informing them of Up ‘til Dawn and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Anyone who doesn’t have a team but is interested in participating in the program should gather to form teams at 6 p.m. Sunday in Harter Union. All teams must be registered by Monday.

The actual Up ‘til Dawn event will begin at 7 p.m. March 6 in the union. Teams will join to address and stuff envelopes. The participants will then move to Collins Center where a celebration will continue until dawn with a theme of Patients of the Cureibbean.

“There will be lots of entertainment going on with free food and drawings,” Lob said. “We have a patient speaker from St. Jude’s coming in to talk. St. Jude’s has given us a lot of stuff to raffle off including an iPod Touch, and the Chiefs and Royals have donated too. So basically the evening will consist of that, beach volleyball, karaoke and we’ll have the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies playing to go with the theme.”

Students are encouraged to come whether they can stay the whole evening or not. Lob said she just wants to make sure people get the most they can out of the experience.

Kaitlin Emig, coordinator for service-learning and volunteering, is the assistant adviser for the event and working with Brett Bruner, director of greek life and health education. Emig has past experience with Up ‘til Dawn and is excited it’s being brought to Baker.

“I think the best part of the Up ‘til Dawn campaign is learning about the success stories and hearing the stories about the children,” she said. “Why they’re in the hospital, what they’ve been going through and how the fundraising we’re doing helps them in the long run.”