Chowning fundraises for IU Coach Helmer

The third floor of the Elkin building in the Teter Quadrangle was the normal route for IU track and field weight thrower Dyrek Chowning as he returned home from practice.

On a mid-January afternoon, he cruised past the dorms of his hallmates, side-stepping oncoming passersby, when he noticed something different about the same bulletin board he passed every day.   

Pinned over an ad for Baked! cookies and another for Campus Tutoring Services, a crisp, white sign-up sheet met Chowning’s gaze with stately presence. Yet it was the message on that paper and the familiar face that came to mind that held his attention.

“It all started with the sign-up sheet in my dorm,” Chowning said. “I thought, ‘It’s just another way we can support him (IU Coach Ron Helmer).’”

When he saw the opportunity to raise money for childhood cancer research, Chowning, a dedicated athlete and full-time student, didn’t hesitate.

He thought only of his passion for volunteering, his love for helping children and his coach.

“I definitely had Coach Helmer in mind when I thought about it,” Chowning said. “Then, after Jeremy of media relations and I talked it about it, I thought, ‘Let’s try to get the whole team to support our coach.’”

Following that conversation, Chowning sent out a mass reply-all message attached to the team’s Big Ten Championship itinerary.

“This Sunday, the ninth, I will be shaving my head for cancer awareness,” he said in the email. “I invite everyone to support the cause by either donating money or shaving their heads with me. This is another great way to support Coach Helmer, so let’s get together and do this as a team.”

It’s not the first time the IU track and field team has rallied behind its coach, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma last year. The team customized bracelets with the slogan “No One Fights Alone” for every team member.

Helmer has spent the last year fighting his cancer into remission, while doing his best to keep the illness quiet throughout the process. Though his health has never been a conversation point for him or the team, Helmer said he can see the affect his fight can have.

“My initial response was, ‘I don’t want to be an inspiration or example for anybody, I just want to be well,’” he said. “And yet, if how you deal with being sick can be an inspiration and a service to someone else, then I think it’s a good thing.”

As a coach, Helmer views Chowning’s fundraising efforts as an important step in the athlete’s maturation process.

He said oftentimes athletes feel as though they’re expected to serve the community, but, for Chowning, that was never the case.

“I have a real hard time with résumé builders and people who do things just because it makes them look good,” Helmer said. “However, when people genuinely feel a cause to help other people, like I think Dyrek does, it’s a very honorable thing.”

Chowning has a long history of volunteering, from his childhood days as a Boy Scout to his adolescent work at the Ransburg Scout Reservation.
 
Though he has raised only $100 so far, Chowning is confident he can reach his $1,000 goal before the end of the weekend.

“If everyone on the team donated just $10, we’d easily reach that,” he said.

His email has already received several positive responses from athletes on the team.
Among them are redshirt freshman Brent Coulter, who agreed to have his head shaved alongside Chowning at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Teter Quad Nest Lounge.

The IU event’s host, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, is one of more than 4,200 head-shaving events started by the non-profit childhood cancer organization since it was founded in 2000.

Coulter and Chowning will be joined by numerous other IU volunteers, including a group from the Eigenmann Quadrangle that has raised more than $2,300.

Parents and children of St. Baldrick’s will also be there to support the volunteers in their head shaving. Some will have the opportunity to open up about their personal experiences with battling cancer. 

“It’s a way for me to reach out to kids that have had it a lot harder than I have in my life,” Chowning said. “I’m just living out one of the things I have a passion for, and hopefully I’m able to help some people.”

Helmer put the impact of fundraising events into perspective.

“With my particular disease, a statistic I heard was in 2005, people diagnosed with multiple myeloma had 37-percent survival rate for five years,” he said. “Since 2005 to the present, the five-year survival rate has gone up to 87 percent. You know that’s a result of research, and research needs dollars, and dollars need events such as these to raise awareness.”