ALANA KELLEN
kellenar@lopers.unk.edu

An event that used to be known as St. Jude’s Up Til Dawn has been rebranded as St. Jude’s No More Cancer Rally. Students were encouraged to come to the event with their laptops and determination to raise money for cancer patients.

Kaylea Kolbo, a senior business administration major from Cozad, helped put together this new event. Kolbo is the executive director of the No More Cancer Rally.

 “We bring people in to raise money, we have prizes, and a pump-up atmosphere,” Kolbo said. “Participants have challenges they have to complete throughout the night to keep them involved with donating and getting others to donate as well.”

St. Jude’s Children’s hospital prides themselves in never making a patient pay for any of their medical treatments. Donations from events like the No More Cancer Rally allows patients to receive treatments without worrying about the cost of being there. 

“Our goal for this event is just to kind of get our name out there again, let people know this is a new event and to come check it out,” Kolbo said.

 Renae Zimmer, the assistant director of leadership of student engagement, and the adviser for the St. Jude’s executive board, understood that since it was the event’s first year there would be some confusion for how donating will work for the event. 

“It’s all about doing the fundraising electronically and we encouraged people to bring a device to log onto the internet with, so they could make a St. Jude’s account and from there they reach out to friends and family to help donate and raise money,” Zimmer said. “Everything’s really done from the internet in one night with a fast paced and high energy feeling.”

Spirit challenges were done throughout the night with prizes being awarded to the top fundraisers. The executive team gave the participants an additional 24 hours to get as many donations in and the top fundraisers won prizes like Apple Air pods, an Echo dot, and a Fitbit. 

“I think this is an underrated organization here at UNK and I want more people to see the benefits out of it,” Kolbo said. “I know it’s just raising money but there’s a lot of people who benefit from this hospital and that spreading awareness here in Nebraska is important even though the hospital is located in Tennessee.”

Although the executive team didn’t have a set goal, it still raised $4,708 to donate to the hospital. There will be another St. Jude’s No More Cancer Rally in the spring, and along with it the hopes of raising even more money for the hospital.