Adrian College fraternity completes third annual 'St. Jude's Sprint' fundraiser in October

Brad Heineman, The Daily Telegram
·2 min read

ADRIAN — For a third straight year, Adrian College’s Theta-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) ran for nearly 35 miles on Oct. 23 to raise money for the mission of St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital.

Close to 20 members of the college's TKE fraternity hit the road on a brisk fall morning and trekked from Adrian to Chelsea.

Members of Adrian College's Theta-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) are pictured alongside — and on top of — the village of Chelsea sign the afternoon of Oct. 23. TKE's third annual "St. Jude's Sprint" raised close to $3,000 with additional donations being tallied. The fundraising sprint goes from Adrian to Chelsea.
Members of Adrian College's Theta-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) are pictured alongside — and on top of — the village of Chelsea sign the afternoon of Oct. 23. TKE's third annual "St. Jude's Sprint" raised close to $3,000 with additional donations being tallied. The fundraising sprint goes from Adrian to Chelsea.

At the end of the campaign, nearly $3,000 had been raised and additional money in donations is still being tallied.

“In all for the semester, we raised more than we did last year,” said AC sophomore and TKE member John Curry. “We are on progress to beat the total amount of money raised from last year’s campaign.”

St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital cares and seeks cures for children diagnosed with catastrophic diseases, particularly leukemia and other forms of cancers. The money raised by Adrian College’s TKE and other college and university fraternities across the nation will be donated to St. Jude’s locations.

This year’s run, Curry said, was closer to 35 than 30 miles, he said.

“I guess it’s easier to say we ran for 30 miles,” he said.

Not every person in attendance ran the entire trip.

“We brought three or four small cars with us,” Curry said. “Every mile or so, runners would switch with those inside the cars. We started at about 9 a.m., and it took about four-five hours until we reached Chelsea.”

Members of Adrian College’s Theta-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) are pictured out front of the Reeves Fraternity House on the AC campus.
Members of Adrian College’s Theta-Omicron Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) are pictured out front of the Reeves Fraternity House on the AC campus.

TKE is planning to conduct another “big ticket” fundraiser in the spring, which will also benefit St. Jude’s.

The “St. Jude’s Sprint” — as the fundraising run has become known — has evolved from a run for Alzheimer’s to the run benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. The national chapter of TKE is affiliated with St. Jude’s and in 2016-17 pledged $10 million for bone marrow and other cancer research, Curry said.

“Us being a smaller chapter at a smaller school, it means a lot to be able to raise the amount of money we have raised and to make a difference,” he said.

This year’s fundraiser was a bit more challenging, Curry said, as AC’s TKE fraternity graduated close to 15 of its seniors during the previous school year. The chapter is about half the size of last year’s.

“Honestly, though, it was a great experience,” he said. “TKE is all about that sense of brotherhood. Coming into the COVID situation last year, it was hard to meet people.

“As part of (TKE) we like to have fun, by we also want to be serious, and we are serious about our mission to help St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian College fraternity completes third annual 'St. Jude's Sprint'