Delta Dodgeball raises over $3,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital

“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball,” said Patches O’Houilan, famed dodgeball coach from the 2004 cult classic DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.

These sentiments rang true on Wednesday night as Delta Delta Delta hosted their annual spring philanthropy event, Delta Dodgeball.

The event raises money for Tri Delta’s national philanthropy, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee. According to the hospital’s mission statement, St. Jude's strives to find cures and take preventative steps to help end severe childhood illnesses, without denying a child based on race, religion or a family's inability to pay.

“I love our philanthropy because I love being a part of something bigger than just our own chapter,” sophomore Tri Delt Candace Hino said.

This year’s event was paired with a profit share at Chipotle the night before. The Willow Lawn location of the chain agreed that for four hours, 50 percent of the profits from designated profit share meals would go to St. Jude. At the dodgeball event, Kate Lafayette, Tri Delta philanthropy chair, announced that event raised $1,700.

Jackie Arnold, the co-chair for philanthropy, said the sorority’s goal for both events was $3,000. To meet the rest of their goal, the sorority charged $30 per team of six players, and at the event Tri Delta members sold raffle tickets and pizza slices for $2 each.

“I was so happy that on the first night we had already met over half of our goal,” Arnold said.

Forty teams signed up and paid to play: 32 men’s and eight women’s. With the money from teams, pizza slices and raffle tickets, Tri Delta exceeded their goal.

Lafayette said it took $2.2 million to run St. Jude for one day. It costs $750 for two chest X-rays, $500 for one hour of physical therapy and $250 for one blood cell transfusion. Lafayette said the proceeds of this event could pay for 12 blood cell transfusions, a common procedure for cancer patients.

Hope Cummins, a freshman participant, explained how deeply personal the event was for her. She talked about how her brother had a brain tumor when he was young and needed medical care.

“If my parents didn’t have the financial resources to take care of him, it would have been terrifying," Cummins said. "The fact that a place like St. Jude's exists is amazing."

The excitement of fundraising was not the only thing to cheer for. This year’s winning team, “The Ball-a-Holics," otherwise known as the varsity football team, completely dominated the court.

In the games leading up to the final, the football team did not have one player get out.

In one of the biggest surprises of the night, the last two minutes of a final game came down to one football player and two Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) players. It seemed as if one the greatest upsets in the night would occur, but Dashon Tibbs caught one ball, bringing Madison Day back to court. Together the two eliminated the final DKE players and won the night.

The excitement from the final game and the pride from the fundraising success put a “W” next to Tri Delta’s name.  

Contact reporter Charlotte Dowell at charlotte.dowell@richmond.edu