FAU’s Sigma Chi breaks records with over $70,000 raised for cancer research, driven by the memory of a late brother and a personal connection to the cause.
Florida Atlantic University’s Sigma Chi Fraternity raised over $70,000 for cancer research in a matter of three days, breaking two school fundraising records and earning a No. 4 national ranking among Sigma Chi chapters. This fundraising achievement for the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) follows the death of FAU Sigma Chi brother James McCoy from cancer in September.
From Nov. 11 to Nov. 13, the chapter set two fundraising records: the most money raised in a single event among all FAU fraternities and sororities ($30,540 during the Call-A-Thon) and the most money raised in a single semester at FAU. They totalled $70,000 across different platforms such as HCI and FAU’s CrowdChange — almost doubling the previous record, according to Sigma Chi’s alumni advisor, Vincent Fernald.
McCoy’s recent death motivated the brothers to fundraise more this year, said Ryan Odabashian, the president of Sigma Chi at FAU and a marketing and accounting major.
“His passing has just helped us to establish more of a purpose this year; like, this year means a little something extra to us because we have a firsthand reason to go so hard,” Odabashian said.
Sigma Chi’s Call-A-Thon was the first that the FAU chapter has ever hosted among all fraternities and sororities. It started when fraternity executive board members realized how much money other chapters were able to raise in short periods, Odabashian explained.
He believes the new purpose of the Call-A-Thon is to emphasize resilience.
“I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason. It’s hard sometimes to find light in such a dark situation, and we were able to do this in just three days,” Odabashian said.
Fernald echoed this statement, stating that these achievements are a “blessing in a storm.”
Josh Ryckman, the philanthropy chair for FAU Sigma Chi and a double major in exercise science and health promotion, said he set high goals for this year’s philanthropy efforts.
“In the past, we’ve only been part of the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s 20K club and never reached the 50K club,” Ryckman said. “My goal this year was to make it into the 50K club, and now we’ve raised our goal to 100k, and I truly believe we’re going to reach it.”
