Two Shippensburg Greek organizations combined efforts this year to raise money for Relay For Life.
They surpassed their goal through collecting money, also known as canning, twice, making them the first group to raise $5,000.
It all began in early March, when Phi Delta Theta and Delta Zeta joined forces to create one team for Relay For Life. The two organizations felt strongly about the cause and knew they could make more of a difference together.
The idea came to Tyler Rosch, a member of Phi Delta Theta, and Heather Allison, a member of Delta Zeta, early in the school year. They had seen canning before and knew how effective it could be for raising money for charity. It was then that they began planning the fundraiser for the two organizations.
Efforts to raise money started on March 1; the groups stood on the intersection of King and Queen streets holding signs and plastic buckets. They worked in shifts; some even stayed the entire six hours. The first day the group raised $700.02, a number that no one expected.
“Seeing support from the community was the best part about all of this. Residents of Shippensburg would come over to us and thank us for all of our efforts in raising money for Relay for Life,” said Heather Allison, team captain of Delta Zeta and Phi Delta Theta Relay group.
From there the groups continued to collect money every Friday in hopes to reach their goal of $3,000. It only took two weeks. When that goal was met they decided they would work to raise more.
“When we increased the goal to $5,000, members of both organizations were so determined to make that happen and we did,” Allison said.
On Friday, April 6 they once again passed their expectations, with a total of $5,115 raised.
After fundraising ended that number continued to rise from member donations as well as family and friends.
Out of the 50 registered teams competing in Relay For Life, Delta Zeta and Phi Delta Theta ranked No. 1. The group also received praise for their efforts by SU Relay for Life’s Twitter as well as a staff partner for Relay.
A tweet on March 9 read, “I can honestly say you all have been our most ambitious group so far for relay. Proud of your team!”
Relay for Life is an organized, overnight community fundraising walk for people with cancer. The event was held at Shippensburg’s Ship Rec Building on Friday, April 19 at 7 p.m. and lasted all night.
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