Fraternities play hockey to fight cancer

In two hours and 47 minutes, 500 tickets were sold for the Dropping the Puck on Cancer hockey game.

Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi pair for their annual philanthropy event, a hockey game between the two chapters, Saturday. All of the proceeds go to the American Brain Tumor Association.

Before costs, they raised $32,000. Their goal was to raise $20,000, which Dropping the Puck Vice President of Communications Sean Jordan said they will meet.

For the past two years, Dropping the Puck contributed to different charities. The first year they raised $2,600 and gave it to Zeta Tau Alpha’s Big Man on Campus philanthropy. Last year they raised $11,700 for the Colon Cancer Prevention Project.

This year they decided to switch to brain cancer because of Andrew Esstman, a senior in Sigma Chi. He lost his mother to brain cancer in 2007. Esstman has been the president of Sigma Chi and the Interfraternity Council,as well as part of the Board of Aeons.

“His work ethic is out the roof,” Myers said. “He is an awesome guy, and this is a deeper cause to us.”

Esstman came to IU from St. Louis where his mother started Suzy Esstman’s Walk on Sunshine walk before she passed away.

“She was very passionate about raising money to find a cure,” Esstman said.
The American Brain Tumor Association is a big cause, Esstman said, and he could not be more grateful for the community’s support.

“It is great to have the house and greek community support the issue,” Esstman said. “There is such strong brotherhood here. The guys have done an incredible job taking the event to the next level. I am so grateful.”

This is the third year for the event, and for the past two years, Sigma Chi won.
“It is very competitive even though it is still philanthropy,” said Matt Myers, Dropping the Puck co-president. “So much work gets put into it. We balance fundraising with competition.”

Most of the players for the hockey teams are from the chapter, but there are a couple honorary players as well. Jordan said it will be a very equitable match.

“There were definitely some heated debates on the roster,” Myers said. “We wanted to make sure it was an even game so it isn’t a blowout.”

Jordan said several members of Sigma Chi and Beta are from Minnesota or Chicago and have played hockey in the past.

Originally the chapters were just going to play a pickup game in the backyard, but Myers said Indiana weather wasn’t conducive to that, so they turned it into a philanthropy event.

Myers said there is a lot of discussion about how to expand the event in the future. They have discussed making the event a tournament or expanding to other universities and moving to a different venue. However, nothing has been decided.

“There is a lot of room to expand,” Myers said. “We just aren’t sure where yet.”