It’s that time of the year when Up Till Dawn has their annual letter sending party.  Up Till Dawn is an organization here on campus that helps raise money for the St. Jude’s Children Hospital.  St. Jude’s is a hospital that treats children with cancer and they run completely on donations.  I was told that it takes one million dollars to run the hospital for one day; that’s a lot of money.  Click here if you would like to learn more about St. Jude’s hospital.

Anyway, the letter sending party is where everyone comes and writes letters to people asking them to donate money to St. Jude’s.  Every year, free food and entertainment is offered for those that come to the event and write letters.  This year’s turnout was one of the biggest I have seen my time here at New Paltz.  The event was held in the Multi-purpose room, which can hold a lot of people, and the room was packed.

Students were asked to bring addresses of family members, friends, or anyone else they may know.  Everyone was asked to write a minimum of three letters, but they were encouraged to write as many as possible.  The event ran from 7pm-11pm and throughout the night there were many different performers.  These performers included the dance team, epic glee, the cheerleaders, and many more.

One of the most memorable things they do every year at the event is to have a cancer survivor from St. Jude’s come a give a little speech.  This year it was a five year old boy named Jacob and his parents.  Jacob’s parents talked on Jacob’s behalf and talked about their struggle when their son was diagnosed with cancer at three years old.  Before they finished, Jacob’s parents thanked everyone that was there and told them how they were making a positive “change” in a child’s life.

Here are some pictures from the event:

I always love being a part of this event every year and feeling as if I made a difference in a child’s life.