Fraternity ‘rocks’ for charity
By Christie Smythe, Senior Staff Writer. Posted April 08, 2005.
Under a heap of blankets — and within arm’s reach of a bedpan — Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity member Steve Sternberg prepared Thursday to spend 63 hours in rocking chair at the corner of Ninth Street and Broadway.
Selected to star in his fraternity’s biennial Rock-A-Thon, an event to raise money for the American Cancer Society, Sternberg got in the chair at 7 a.m. Thursday and will stay until 10 p.m. Saturday.
“You never understand how much you enjoy standing up until you can’t do it anymore,” he said, smirking.
In the same breath, but in a more somber tone, he described why he was selected to be the “rocker.” In February 2004, his mother was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas. She died within a month.
Roughly 32,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2005, according to the American Cancer Society’s Web site. More than 75 percent are expected to die within a year of diagnosis, according to the site.
“That’s how fast pancreatic cancer is,” Sternberg said. “It’s fairly hard to detect. It doesn’t show a lot of symptoms.”
The Rock-A-Thon has been a tradition for the MU chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi since 1969, and is the largest single-chapter philanthropy in the nation, Rock-A-Thon chairman Ian Roth said.
The fraternity borrowed the rocking-chair idea from another Greek organization in South Carolina, he said. In its 36 years, Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Rock-A-Thon has become one of the most well-known events of its kind in the country, Roth said.
In 2003, the fundraiser did the trick, garnering a record $32,000. This year the fraternity has set a goal of $25,000, but members hope to beat last year’s total.
“The goal of every chairman is to outdo the last,” he said.
This year, the fraternity has accumulated about 30 sponsors, including H & R Block, the Columbia Daily Tribune, McDonalds of Columbia, Visionworks, Witt Printing, Jimmy John’s and First National Bank.
Contributions have ranged in value from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000.
Although Sternberg is the headliner, all fraternity members participate in the event by canvassing area businesses and neighborhoods for the duration of the 63 hours. The fraternity is also accepting donations online at
www.rockathon2005.org.
Surrounding the platform where Sternberg sat in his rocking chair Thursday afternoon, fellow fraternity members and other friends rattled cans and solicited donations from passersby.
Helping out by going door-to-door was Sternberg’s sister, a sophomore, who said she was happy to lend a hand.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Emily Sternberg said. “It’s supporting our mom, which is good.”
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