Funding research at St. Jude

Nothing attracts a crowd of 800 people like nighttime pancakes.

Beginning at 9 p.m. Saturday and lasting until 1 the next morning, the Delta Delta Delta sorority hosted its annual Tri Hop philanthropy to raise money for St. Jude Hospital. After an entrance fee, participants braved the rain and dished up a selection of breakfast favorites, from pancakes to bacon to hash browns, and then spent an evening inside the Delta Delta Delta house.

Melissa Kipersztok, a sophomore studying pre-law and the chair of philanthropy for Delta Delta Delta, said the chapter aimed to reach a fundraising goal of $20,000 this year. At the start of the event, they were at about $16,000. She said she was confident they would make the goal.

The sorority will find out the total amount of money raised later today.

Local businesses sponsored the event, Kipersztok said.

Courtney Robbins, Delta Delta Delta president and junior accounting major, said local grocery stores also donated the cooking materials for the pancake feed.

The tradition of a pancake feed goes back a long way, Kipersztok said.

“St. Jude has been our philanthropic partner since 1999,” Kipersztok said. “So we’ve been doing this every year since.”

Every Delta Delta Delta chapter in the country participates in this philanthropy, Kipersztok said. Ashley Morse, a sophomore studying fashion design and merchandising and the public relations chair for the house, said last year the sorority raised $27 million nationally. This was enough to completely fund the entire St. Jude campus for two weeks, Morse said.

With facts about St. Jude taped around the house and in all the bathrooms, the sorority women had no shortage of reasons to support the research hospital.

One fact, Morse said, was St. Jude’s research on acute lymphoblastic leukemia since the hospital opened in 1964.

“In 1964, the survival for childhood A.L.L, which is a type of cancer, was 4 percent,” Morse said. “Now, since St. Jude opened, it’s 94 percent, and it’s all due to the research.”

Fundraising for St. Jude is important, Kipersztok said, because the hospital will never turn someone away based on an inability to pay.

Robbins said she has seen the philanthropy get bigger every year she’s attended.

“I think every philanthropy chair adds something and learns something from the others,” Robbins said.

Because of its popularity, the organizers extended the event by an hour this year.

“Everybody loves pancakes,” Robbins said.