By Kathryn Moore
Staff Writer
Greek organizations Alpha Tau Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha painted the campus red and pink last week to raise awareness for cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.
ATO sponsored Hallo-Week Oct. 22-27 to raise awareness and funds for cardiovascular disease. This was the fraternity’s first philanthropy event in several years.
Wil Story, senior psychology major and ATO social service chairman, said the group chose the cause because ATO president Stephen Hauss, junior business administration major, was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy last year.
“This basically means his heart is thicker than everyone else’s, so it is forced to pump blood harder than someone with a normal heart,” Story said.
Hauss’s heart condition can affect anyone at any age. According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States.
To raise awareness, ATO offered students and faculty statistical information about heart disease outside of Brewer Dining Hall.
To raise money, the fraternity held an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast Saturday morning. Members raised a majority of funds from several student organization sponsorships. They also sold T-shirts and took donations at the annual Things That Go Bump in the Night Halloween open party Oct. 25.
Story said he is pleased with Union’s participation in Hallo-Week and encouraged by his fellow students’ willingness to donate more than $1,800 to the cause.
“It’s never too early to think about how heart disease could affect you,” Story said. “College students assume heart disease only hits people older than us, but in Stephen’s case, it happened unexpectedly. We just want Union students to be aware that it can happen to anybody.”
The women of Zeta Tau Alpha also worked to raise awareness for breast cancer research last week during its Think Pink campaign. Think Pink is ZTA’s international philanthropy, so chapters all over the world are raising awareness for breast cancer prevention during October.
“One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Alexis Pham, sophomore business management major and ZTA fundraising chair. “There are 80 girls in our chapter, so that means that 10 of my close friends could potentially be affected. When you put the numbers in perspective, it’s alarming.”
ZTA sponsored several awareness events last week, including Encourage Night Oct. 23. Breast cancer survivors talked about their battle with the disease, and attendees wrote encouraging notes to breast cancer patients in local Jackson clinics.
ZTA encouraged the Union community to participate in Pink Out the Campus Day Oct. 26, even with something as small as wearing a pink awareness ribbon.
To raise money, the group worked with frozen yogurt shop Sweet Cece’s, which offered a percentage of its profits to the cause. ZTA’s two biggest fundraisers included a Zumbathon Oct. 26 and the Pink Ribbon Bowl flag football tournament Oct. 27. By the end of the week, ZTA had raised more than $1,000.
“We eventually want pink to just be another color, rather than a color associated with breast cancer awareness,” Pham said. “We want there to be a cure.”
