Collegiate Charities, an organization aimed at assisting nonprofit organizations with fundraising and event promotions, will promote the event.
Dropping the Puck on Cancer is a series of hockey games played between fraternities to raise money for the American Brain Tumor Association. It began with a single game played between Sigma Chi and Beta Theta Pi in 2011.
Lucian Soro, Sigma Chi’s Dropping the Puck chair, said there are now four games, each with different ?fraternities.
Last year, the competition brought Sigma Chi against Beta Theta Pi and Kappa ?Sigma playing Delta Tau ?Delta.
This year, Phi Delta Theta will compete against Theta Chi and Lambda Chi Alpha will face Delta Upsilon.
Soro said Dropping the Puck on Cancer also hosts percentage nights at local restaurants and sorority events. He said participation and funds raised by these events has increased every year.
In their first year, Soro said they only raised $2,000. They raised more than $43,000 last year.
Kappa Sigma Co-Chair for Dropping the Puck on Cancer and IU Hockey player Kyle Donelson said the event brings opposing fraternities together to support a cause greater than themselves.
“Dropping the Puck on Cancer channels rivalries throughout the Greek system and uses them to support a great cause,” he said. “It also helps to support local hockey in the Bloomington area by donating some of the proceeds to the Bloomington Blades, who volunteer at our event.”
Dropping the Puck on Cancer is one of the fastest growing organizations on campus, Soro said.
“We perform great work and donate our proceeds to an extremely important cause,” he said. “Fundraising aside, Dropping the Puck is different from almost everything else at IU. We’ve combined philanthropy and healthy athletic competition to grow our appeal from year to year amongst several organizations on campus.”
Donelson said the event does a great job of attracting attention toward brain cancer as well as having a profound effect on the future.
Nearly 700,000 people in the United States alone are being treated for brain tumors, Donelson said.
“Dropping the Puck is just another example that shows that greek life isn’t just about the social life,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing seeing 18- to 22-year-olds come together to play a sport they love while also raising money for something that will indeed affect a lot of us in our lifetimes.”
Soro said the goal each year is to beat last year’s total raised amount. Another major goal is to make the other games as recognized as the Sigma Chi-versus-Beta match.
Dropping the Puck has expanded to other universities such as the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota and more, with an ultimate goal of becoming nationally recognized.
“We understand that will come in due time,” Donelson said.
