Monica Lake | Lariat Photographer
By Lauren Tidmore
Reporter
In support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Baylor’s Beta Tau chapter of Delta Delta Delta plans to host its second annual Delta Duck Races from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the Baylor Marina.
Anyone interested can purchase numbered rubber ducks to race down the Brazos River. The purchaser of the first place duck will win an iPad. Second and third places will receive gift baskets, which include gift cards and coupons to Waco area restaurants and entertainment spots.
Delta Delta Delta members are selling $5 tickets for the event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today in the Bill Daniel Student Center. Tickets will provide purchasers with a rubber duck to race, as well as the opportunity to be one of the first 400 attendees to receive free hot dogs, cookies and chips, provided by Bartek’s Catering.
“It’s great for the spring,” said Houston sophomore Mary Kathryn Gauci, the sorority’s philanthropy chair. “It’s outdoors. It’s a great time to be with friends and raise money for St. Jude, too.”
Last spring’s Delta Duck Races brought in $7,000, which the sorority donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Delta Delta Delta was able to raise a total of $81,000 for the hospital within the 2012-2013 school year.
At the beginning of last semester, the sorority set a goal of raising $100,000. Members of the Beta Tau chapter said they hope to reach this goal by the end of the semester through the letter campaign program Sincerely Yours. Each Delta Delta Delta member wrote 35 to 50 letters to family, friends and other contacts to encourage donations for the research hospital. The duck racing fundraiser will also help in this goal.
A group of Delta Delta Delta members traveled to Memphis this past October to visit the children and families at St. Jude, as well as see the hospital floor dedicated to the sorority for the continued financial support.
“It made it so much more personal,” Gauci said. “It really made it about the children and made their stories come to life.”
Plano sophomore Maelyn Schramm, a Delta Delta Delta member, said she gained an understanding of the work being done at the hospital, giving her a connection to the organization and a desire to continue supporting the hospital.
“Everyone that works at St. Jude has an absolute passion for the patients and for their families,” Schramm said. “I think one of the really cool things about St. Jude that I took away from it is it’s not a hospital, it’s more of a home for the patients and families that go there.”
Spring senior Samantha Wendling said she appreciates the aid St. Jude gives to the families of patients in such areas as housing, financial and emotional needs.
“They provide everything that a family would need when they’re going through a crisis like that,” Wendling said. “That just helps take some of the burden off a grieving family when their child is so sick.”
The Delta Delta Delta members said they hope to raise a good sum of money at the duck races to help the families in need.
“I hope we see a lot of people out there to learn more about St. Jude,” Gauci said. “Buy tickets.”
