Newsroom

University 101 Class Raises $800 by Playing Kickball

September 26, 2012

What looked like a throwback to recess from your days in elementary school, a kickball game on the school lawn, was actually a fundraiser to help cure cancer in children. University of South Carolina students from a University 101 class played kickball on the Horseshoe on Wednesday, September 26, in honor of the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation and the Kick-it initiative.

Kick-It was founded by a 10-year old cancer patient with a big dream--to cure cancer by playing kickball. Now a national fundraising program, Kick-It raises money for pediatric, adolescent and young-adult cancer research. NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon’s foundation raises money for children’s cancer research, and he is also an advocate and active participant in the Kick-It program.

University 101 instructor and My Carolina Alumni Association director of membership marketing Meredith Jones put the game together on the Horseshoe with her class.

“Our class goal was to raise $250 through donations from their peers,” Jones says. “They were not allowed to use their own money or ask their parents. They raised over $800. I could not be more proud of these 19 freshmen.”

Jones noted that Jeff Gordon has pledged to match the $800 the class raised with a donation of his own, as he is matching all funds raised through Kick-It during the month of September. Jones came up with the idea because her sister, Jennifer, ’06, is the manager of Kick-It for the Jeff Gordon Foundation.

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