Ski Spree

Students fundraise for blood-cancer research

April 15, 2008

Will Weeks '10, Claudia Shuba '08, Richard Smith '10, Curtis Lentz '10, Chris Collier '10, Vincent Pastore '09 and Eric Johns '09 enjoy a midnight bonfire during a 24-hour ski marathon for charity.

Members of Dickinson's Ski & Snowboard Club raised more than $2,800 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Central Pennsylvania during the 24-hour Ski4Life Marathon.

"It was really hard to keep ourselves motivated and standing upright at 4:30 in the morning, but to have accomplished the 24-hour ski marathon was a blast," says Chris Collier '10, the club's co-president. "All in all—taking breaks into account—we skied for 20 out of the 24 hours."

Eight Dickinson-student skiers joined approximately 150 other participants at Ski Roundtop in Lewisberry, Pa., for the event. Skiing between noon on Saturday, March 1, and noon on Sunday, March 2, participants together raised more than $60,000 to support leukemia and lymphoma research.

"While fundraising, 75 percent of my donations came from the Dickinson community—faculty and administrators, but mainly students," Collier says.

The ski marathon was a new event for the Ski & Snowboard Club, but the group hopes to continue its involvement in the fundraiser.

"We got to do something we absolutely love while contributing to others, but what also made this so special was to see several survivors of leukemia participate in the event with us," Collier says. "It was really cool seeing how dedicated they all were to the event, and it was nice getting to know them and hearing their stories."