Ohio University’s Acacia Fraternity raised $13,000 for pancreatic cancer research last Saturday at its third annual 5Cacia.
“100 percent of the money is donated to the Lustgarten Foundation,” said Ben Haddad, former president of Acacia. “Lustgarten is basically the end all, be all of pancreatic cancer research and this was the first year they officially put us on their calendar. It was exciting.”
Haddad said the success of this year’s 5Cacia is because the fraternity is becoming familiar with running the event.
“The first year we did it, we raised $5,500 and were ecstatic,” Haddad said. “But we planned that in about three months, and now we spend six to nine months planning.”
The $13,000 is a combination of donations and registration money, Haddad said. Local businesses, family of the fraternity members and other people all donated money, and Haddad said donations are continuing to pour in.
In order to hold the event, Acacia puts on several smaller fundraisers throughout the year that help pay for the 5Cacia. Acacia was previously connected with a different philanthropy, but one member’s experience inspired the fraternity to switch gears.
“A few years ago, one of our (now-alumnus), Justin Baldinger, lost his grandmother,” Haddad said. “He was really close with her and the cause became near and dear to his heart.”
Kelley Ward, a member of the Delta Zeta sorority, became involved immediately. She had event planning experience, and Baldinger approached her.
“He wanted to raise awareness and needed some help, so we just started planning it,” Ward said. “From there, it took off to what it is today.”
Haddad said having a charity that the fraternity has a direct tie to has helped keep members more interested.
“We had a different philanthropy in the past, but we weren’t too involved with it,” Haddad said. “Once we started the 5Cacia, we’ve been a lot more involved because we all really care about this.”
Haddad said Acacia hopes to earn $20,000 next year.
“We’ve been growing as a fraternity, and we’re really hoping the addition of new members can help,” Haddad said. “We’re a bit worried we reached our peak this year, but we’re confident if we stretch our budget and reach out to companies, we can hit $20,000.”
Ward, who has been an integral part of the planning process the past three years, said she initially worried the event would lose momentum with founders graduating this year.
“Since people are graduating, we really wanted to make sure (5Cacia) continues after people leave,” Ward said. “Everyone stepped up though. They wanted to show those of us who started it that they could do it, and it became something they wanted to be proud of. It was great to see their hard work pay off.”
Bobby Welly, a senior and current treasurer for Acacia, said he’s also excited to turn the event over to younger members.
“We are very excited to hand the reigns down to those who are younger than us and are about to take their turn in making a big difference with the event,” Welly said. “This year every member stepped up even more than they have in the past two years to help us be successful.”
Welly said the amount of money raised during the past three years is inspiring.
“I think the fact that we have been able to raise over $33,000 over the past three years for pancreatic cancer research is a testament to how much people care about philanthropy, even in hard times,” Welly said.
In addition to the money raised, Haddad, Welly and Ward all said it’s great to see the people come together.
“We have other fraternities coming out when usually we’re all really competitive,” Haddad said. “Plus there’s the other OU students, the Athens residents and the families of Greek members. It’s a really constructive effort of everyone coming together for this one cause, and we were really impressed this year.”
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