PEORIA (25News Now) – Bradley University’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity hopes to turn tragedy into action after a member’s father recently died from a dangerous form of cancer.
Philanthropy week kicks off for Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity in just three weeks, and they’re raising money for signet-ring colon cancer research.
“I wanted to set up a silent auction because over the summer we had the fun run from the Michael P. Foundation, and they do a silent auction every year, and I kind of took inspiration from that,” said Connor Higgins, the philanthropy chair for Pi Kappa Alpha.
Higgins said right now, they need community support to make the silent auction happen.
“We’re looking for donations, gift cards, stuff like that from local businesses or even larger businesses, individuals, pretty much anybody that they can donate so we can auction them off and hopefully make this our biggest event of our philanthropy week,” said Higgins.
And for him, this fundraiser is personal.
“My family and I have been supporting the Michael P. Brown Foundation for a couple of years. And then about two years ago, my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. So we were working with them. It was actually the same kind of colon cancer as Michael P. Brown,” said Higgins.
Sadly, Connor’s dad passed away a month ago to signet-ring colon cancer at 52 years old.
