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Saturday morning, normally calm and serene Alumni Park was filled with volunteers, fans, supporters, and hundreds of participants in the annual Sigma Chi Run/Walk for Hope Philanthropy. They raised $60,000 for cancer research.
Although this is the 11th year Sigma Chi has hosted the event, this year had special meaning for the fraternity.
“This event was actually started by the president of the fraternity, Bill Sharring, 11 years ago because his mother had cancer,” said senior Mike Flores, who has coordinated the event for two years. “We have a similar situation this year with one of our members Mike Simon, whose mother passed away from cancer this summer.”
Kathi Simon was diagnosed with cancer when Mike was in sixth grade, and fought the disease for nine and a half years.
“This event is the biggest blessing, it means so much to me to have my brothers surrounding me, and taking charge,” Mike said. “I have such an amazing group of friends, the way the are honoring my family, I think it speaks highly of our fraternity and the guys in it.”
Holding the event in Alumni Park was a new idea. Usually the 5K run is held at Pepperdine’s track, and is a low-key event.
“My freshman year, we held it on the track, and we had one hand-made poster,” senior Collin Wedel said. “This year the event is so professional, it’s outstanding.”
Anyone can participate in the run/walk each year after paying a small entry fee, and over two hundred people entered and completed it this year. Many of these people were Sigma Chis, but many were from other fraternities or sororities, community members, alumni, faculty and students.
“I’m a Sigma Chi so supporting them is a huge part of the reason I’m here, but I love these people and this place, I wanted to support Mike and the efforts to commemorate his mom,” said Signo Uddenberg, who went to Pepperdine last year but is a senior at USC this year.
The desire to honor the Simon family inspired the attitude of professionalism that prevailed the planning and execution of the event this year.
“We want to raise the bar for philanthropies,” Flores said. “This is our first year making this a big event with sponsorship and everything, but it still came off so well.”
The two largest sponsors for the Run/Walk were the New York Mercantile Exchange and the Viola family.
Sophomore Mike Viola was heavily involved in the planning for this event.
“I’d say this has been a great success, it’s a lot of hard work, but the day of always makes everything worth it,” Viola says.
All the proceeds raised will go directly to the City of Hope Cancer Center, a prominent research center. The fraternity has raised over $60,000 so far, through donations and writing letters, their goal is to be able to give $100,000 to the City of Hope by the end of this year.
“The letters are still coming in. I don’t know if it’s practical, but it would be amazing if we actually did it,” Viola said. “Everything is going to charity, and we’ve been planning this since last spring, so it’s great to see it finally coming together.”
City of Hope is located about an hour from Pepperdine in Duarte, Calif. Simon went through both stem cell and radiation treatment there.
“The treatment my mom went through there added about five years to her life,” Simon said. “That five years allowed her to see me graduate from high school and see me come here to form some of my closest friendships, and start growing into the man I will become.”
The numerous tents in Alumni Park on Saturday held volunteers and information, Jamba Juice for the finishers, and finishers resting and admiring the view.
Mr. Simon and Mike’s younger sister Casey Simon completed the course, and Mike volunteered as a course marshal.
“I’m tried to stay more hands off, just because it is so personal to me,” Mike said. “But in spite of everything, this whole experience has been so good for my family. Instead of tearing us apart, it’s really brought us together.”
He said the event was very valuable, and organizers agreed.
“It was a good day for our fraternity, and philanthropies in general,” Viola said. “When you have 50 people all passionate about something, almost anything is possible.”
Submitted 04-05-2007
MALIBU, CA
