By Daniel Knuth
Psi/Wisconsin held its 46th annual Ski For Cancer philanthropy event at Cascade Mountain in Portage, Wisconsin on Saturday March 7th. Ski For Cancer is a fun-filled day of skiing, snowboarding, and tubing, with buses shuttling students friends and families to and from the Wisconsin campus for the day. Promoted on campus by the likes of Big Ten Basketball Coach of the Year Bo Ryan, over 750 students, family, alumni, and friends attended the event.
Through their efforts, Psi brothers raised a record $48,000 towards fighting childhood cancer. Funds will be donated to the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund (MACC Fund) and #KaylynStrong, a grassroots effort supporting a young two-year old girl with brain cancer.
The $48,000 raised in 2015 built upon the record total set in 2014 of $41,000. Since its inception in 1969, Ski For Cancer has raised over $450,000- $150,000 in the last four years alone.
Psi chapter would like to thank all of those who supported Ski For Cancer this year and look forward to continuing to break records in 2016.
Dan Knuth, Chairman of the Theta Chi Ski for Cancer event received the following letter from John M. Cary, Executive Director of Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer, Inc.
Dear Dan:
Please accept and extend our thanks to your great Psi Chapter Brothers for all of their efforts to make 2015 Ski for Cancer such a resounding, record-breaking success. A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to you for Chairing this important annual event. Everyone associated with Psi Chapter from graduating classes spanning six decades should be so proud of the first Ski for Cancer in your new house. The children and everyone associated with the MACC Fund join me in thanking you as well as your incredibly generous and proud alumni who not only laid the seeds for Ski for Cancer but continue to generously support it each year.
Your efforts to raise funds will help the MACC Fund continue to support research into the effective treatment and cure of childhood cancer and other related blood disorders like aplastic anemia and sickle cell disease.
As you have learned throughout your years at Theta Chi working with Ski for Cancer, cancer is the leading disease-related cause of death in children after the newborn period. The overall cure rate for childhood cancer has risen from 20% to 80% during the 38-year lifetime of the MACC Fund. The MACC Fund’s research contributions of more than $52 million have played an important role in that success. Ski for Cancer has played an important supporting role in this. Yet even children in that 80% category can relapse and have “late effects” which require more research support.
Thanks to generous friends like Psi Chapter members of all ages and its many benefactors, great things are being accomplished in Wisconsin in the MACC Fund Childhood Cancer Research Wing at the word-renown University of Wisconsin’s Carbone Cancer Center. The efforts of Dr. Paul Sondel and his great team truly are on the cutting edge as their position on the “Stand Up to Cancer’s” Dream Team clearly shows. The MACC Fund is also proud to support research in the MACC Fund Research Center of the Medical College of Wisconsin and in the MACC Fund Center at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The research efforts conducted in these three great institutions impacts the care and treatment of children throughout Wisconsin, the nation and the world.
Thanks again to you and the great Psi Chapter Ski for Cancer team – and its extended team - for your special Gift of Hope and for caring for the children. We are proud and grateful to have you all on the MACC Fund Team. Thanks for helping the MACC Fund to give every child a fighting chance.
Gratefully,
MIDWEST ATHLETES AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCER, INC.
John M. Cary
Executive Director
