Photos by Richie Petrosino
Delta Tau Delta fraternity held a fundraiser, Ball for Buckman, for a Quinnipiac University student on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017 at Burt Kahn Court.
Gabby Buckman, a senior, was diagnosed with two types of malignant brain cancer, grades three and four in July 2017. Both grades expand quickly, but grade four spreads more aggressively. Buckman receives proton radiation treatment at the University of Pennsylvania.
The cost of insurance, medical bills and trips to Philadelphia have a costly impact on the Buckmans.
Over the summer, some of Buckman’s friends started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family. The goal was $50,000. Over the past two months, Buckman’s page has totaled $50,110. Many donors are Quinnipiac University students.
Delta Tau Delta organized the event through classy,org, an online donation page. The brothers then set up fundraising pages for Quinnipiac students to create teams to volunteer. The fraternity made sure to get the word out about Ball for Buckman with social media, using platforms like Facebook to invite students to the event.
[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]Delta Tau Delta’s fundraising goal for Ball for Buckman was $10,000 to bridge the gap of $40,000 on the student’s GoFundMe page. The fraternity set up an online page which spiked to an amount of over $5,300. They also collected over $1,000 on the day of the event.
Ball for Buckman lasted from 12-3 p.m. The event consisted of 3-on-3 basketball tournaments and 3-point shootouts. Student-athletes of the men’s basketball team served as referees for the volunteers who participated. Refreshments were available to spectators and volunteers of Ball for Buckman.
Two tables were set up at the entrance of Burt Kahn Court. One was for spectators and another for participants. For spectators it was $3 for entrance, which donated to the event. T-shirts were also sold in support of Buckman.
Students also had the opportunity to buy a raffle ticket, which allowed them to compete with and against the men’s basketball team in a 3-point shootout.
“I am still confident we can reach this goal with the help of others in the Quinnipiac community,” senior biomedical marketing major Maxwell Marson said.
Delta Tau Delta will continue to raise awareness and money for Buckman by selling specialized t-shirts and keeping their fundraising page open to all who wish to donate to Buckman and her family.
“All of the brothers in Delta Tau Delta made an impact in one way or another,” Marson said. “This event is impossible to be run by only a couple individuals, and many brothers stepped up for the cause.”
The men’s basketball team co-sponsored with Delta Tau Delta for the fundraising event. Many Greek organizations stepped in to help Buckman, including: Chi Omega, Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Chi Omega, Kappa Delta, Zeta Beta Tau, and Sigma Phi Epsilon.
[media-credit id=2182 align=”alignright” width=”300″]
[/media-credit]“I’m a member of Chi Omega and we had our own event similar to this called Swishes for Wishes.,” freshman public relations major Camila Maturana said. “A couple of my friends and I decided to form a team to volunteer in this event.”
WTNH, an affiliate of ABC in New Haven, came to the event and interviewed Marson and senior public relations major Christopher Thorkilsen.
“As a whole, we were honored to host this event for all that Gabby has gone through, we wanted to make the biggest difference possible in terms of helping her and her family out,” Thorkilsen said.
Those who still .wish to donate to Buckman will be able to through Delta Tau Delta’s fundraising page and the GoFundMe.
