‘tis the Season

 Monmouth, IL – November 10, 2006 – Monmouth College students spent the evening with friends to raise needed funds to benefit children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®.

These students are members of a new collegiate program at Monmouth College called Up ‘til Dawn, a program that is dedicated to uniting the campus and surrounding community in an effort to save the lives of children with severe illness. Students at the event wrote letters to friends, families, and anyone else that they might know asking for donations to St. Jude. The students wrote 1,987 letters at the event and even more letters came in over the weekend, pushing the total to over 2,000 letters written. Western Illinois University has written 2,700 letters this year; Monmouth may be able to surpass them. The letter-writing is a year-round event and students, according to Samantha Dwyer, “have an opportunity to help others and get something out of it too.”

The students who participated in this year’s event received a specially designed T-shirt for the event and were entertained by a DJ, the Monmouth College Dance Team, a band, and plenty of other fun activities. Food at the event was provided by the Italian Village, Pepperonis, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, and the Campus Food Services. Please stop by and thank any of these great local sponsors.

Up ‘til Dawn is a program associated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a recognized pioneer in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. All findings are freely shared with the medical and scientific communities around the world. With current costs reaching over one million dollars a day to keep the doors of the Hospital open, community support is always needed. The Event will continue and is open to the Monmouth community. If you would like to learn how you can make a donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or help write letters, please visit our website at http://department.monm.edu/uptildawn. For more information, contact Executive Producer of Up ‘til Dawn Kyle Schierer at kschierer@monm.edu