A fraternity, a research lab and T-shirts turned out to be a winning combination for cancer research last November.
ASU fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha held a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research at Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, last November and recently visited that very same lab.
TGen is a local research lab that works towards helping with multiple diseases and treatments. They work with results from the Human Genome project to help with diagnostics and the role genetics play, according to their website.
However, the money from Lambda Chi Alpha went specifically towards pancreatic cancer research.
Business freshman Race Carter and business management freshman Braden Liu were the two associate members of the fraternity who came up with the idea to hold a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer.
Carter said they formed the idea to fundraise when Liu worked on a T-shirt in Hayden Library one day and Carter thought to replace the “chi” symbol with a ribbon.
He said they soon found out it could be so much more than just a T-shirt to sell.
He said they realized November was Pancreatic Cancer Month and that purple was both the color for pancreatic cancer and one of their fraternity’s colors.
“It was just awesome timing," Carter said. "It was meant to be."
Math junior Ryan Theisen, the president of Lambda Chi Alpha, said he didn’t hesitate to create the fundraiser.
“I’ve always, personally, wanted to have this as something we wanted to do. I mean, we have the entire fall semester,” Theisen said. “When I heard this idea I thought it was just fantastic.”
Theisen said he feels that community service should be a big part of both his fraternity and Greek life.
“(We're) getting to use our influence on campus, and obviously we have a lot of people who are able to help out, but ... at the same time, that’s really important to me in shaping our image on campus and in the community in general,” Theisen said.
Carter said he and Liu were recently invited to visit the TGen lab for a tour.
“I’m not studying anything biological or anything in the science field, but it almost made me want to switch majors,” Carter said. “It was awesome to see how those studies can apply directly to really cool things.”
Liu said that as soon as they presented the idea to the fraternity, their older brothers were all very supportive by bringing in the sorority chapters and contacts needed to host the event.
“I had just entered college, I didn’t really know what to expect and two months in I was surprised at the fact that they were so supportive of just a small idea we had,” Liu said.
He also said he received many calls, texts and Facebook messages from his fraternity brothers asking how they could help.
“Everybody each has their own unique skill assets, and all these different connections,” Liu said. “So, we used all that to our advantage and that really helped get the whole thing going.”
Liu said that he hopes to host the event again and that the people at TGen are planning to help in a bigger way next year as well.
Marketing sophomore Madelaine Bauer is a member of Pi Beta Phi, the sorority that won the fundraising challenge. She said her little in Lambda Chi Alpha is Braden Liu and that watching him plan made her want to participate even more.
“It made me even more passionate about it because he would talk to me about all the events that he was going to do and he would try to make sure everything was so perfect,” Bauer said.
Reach the reporter at avcabral@asu.edu or follow @angeligagaa on Twitter.
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