Sarah Cantin | Keeping the causes close to home

Let's be honest - as college students, we take a lot for granted: no class on Fridays, Wawa and FroGro's late-night hours, our ability to watch daytime television like retirees and often, our health. Sure, we keep Student Health on their toes, but for the most part, the diseases that plague our nation tend not to affect our age group. We get colds - we rarely contract chronic illnesses.

Which is why those college students who do bear that extra challenge need all the peer support they can get.

While many Greek organizations have a national philanthropy to which all chapters contribute, two of Penn's fraternities also rally around causes a bit closer to home. In the past few years, Beta Theta Pi and Phi Kappa Sigma (Skulls) have harnessed the celebratory atmosphere accompanying the end of the spring semester by organizing downtown events that raise funds for health conditions that affect their members. In the process, they're not only giving us worthwhile reasons to put the laptop away, they're also making good on the 'brotherhood' part of Greek life.

Last Thursday, Beta hosted Nappy Roots at a downtown event to kick off Fling, raising $5,000 for Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP). FOP is a rare genetic disorder that causes muscles, tendons and ligaments to turn to bone. There is no treatment for the condition, but in 2006, a team at our very own Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania made huge advances when they discovered the gene that causes FOP.

Raising awareness has become important to Beta because Ian Cali, a freshman at the University of Delaware, one of 652 known cases of FOP in the world, is the brother of College senior and former fraternity president, Jason Cali.

While far more common than FOP, Crohn's disease can be a similarly devastating illness, as Wharton junior and Skulls member and InterFraternity Council president Shawn Woodhull knows. Shawn has been battling the disease, an inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, for eight years. He's had more than 60 surgeries, sometimes with only six weeks in between them. It's stabilized recently, though, and his last surgery was in January 2008.

Shawn was hospitalized several times while pledging in the spring of 2007. Wanting to help, his new fraternity brothers decided to host a fundraiser for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), and "Crunk for Crohn's" was born. The now-annual event will be held this Wednesday, and hopes to raise $1,000.

With the multitude of worthy charities, picking one to support can feel like an impossible choice, for organizations and individuals alike. But when a fraternity has a firsthand link to a meaningful cause, it makes sense for them to pool their resources and help one of their own. As Shawn notes, "It's a major motivator for the brotherhood to engage in philanthropy with which it has a personal connection - and such strong motivation produces greater results as members promote the event to their friends."

For Ian, Jason and Shawn, their fraternities offer built-in support at school. When his symptoms flared without warning, Shawn's fraternity brothers were the ones to escort him to HUP. "Without my fraternity, my struggles with Crohn's would have been significantly more difficult," Shawn says.

And the Cali brothers are genuinely moved by Beta's commitment to the cause - not just with drink specials in hand. Last fall, 35 members made an early morning trek to New Jersey and joined 50 of Ian's fraternity brothers to participate in a 5K run for FOP at the Calis' former high school. Seeing how his fraternity has rallied around a cause that's so important to his family, Jason says, "is a pretty amazing experience."

Ian and Shawn are college kids, just like us. But the health that many of us take for granted is not a given for these two - not even close. Every symptom-free day is a victory for Shawn; every tiny research development is a little ray of hope for Ian.

With characteristic good humor, Ian says, "My basic perspective is that if I can be happy and get through today, what's going to stop me from getting through tomorrow?"

Giving to a good cause invariably makes us feel a bit better about ourselves. Giving to good people - like Ian and Shawn - just makes it that much sweeter.

Sarah Cantin is a College senior from Boston, Mass. Candid Cantin appears on alternating Mondays. Her email address is cantin@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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