Hockey is not one of the 24 NCAA varsity sports offered at Indiana University. However, this March, hockey was more than just a game at Frank Southern Ice Arena. It was a chance to gain awareness for an issue that hits home in many homes across America.
In partnership with Greek fraternities across the IU Bloomington campus, Hope for Hoosiers and College Charities hosted the 9th annual “Drop the Puck on Cancer” event. The proceeds to go to cancer research in the Bloomington area.
In 2011, two fraternities, Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi, took to the ice for the first game in the events’ history.
Now in the 9th year, the, tournament features more than 10 fraternities, which includes the two original competitors, Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi. But that’s not the only change the event has had since it’s inception.
“At the time I was looking to go out there and do some non-profit type of stuff,” said College Charities founder Carl Lamb. “I had a Beta at the time come to me and try to sell some advertising space in a Greek newspaper. We had started chatting and had found out that they had tried to put an event like this together, I said the timing was good and I was interested in possibly getting involved.”
Through the first two years, the event grew to the point to where Lamb created his company, “Collegiate Charities,” in the third year of his involvement with the program.
According to a 2018 census,an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer have affected the United States. This is true for Will Patton. A sophomore at IU, and a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, Patton lost his father to Melanoma, and his mother, was diagnosed with breast cancer last October.
Patton’s love for his family, his fraternity and hockey gave the 20-year-old a profound desire to see the event grow.
“I’m a big hockey guy, I love hockey,” Patton said… The fact that this event is for charity and through my fraternity {Sigma Chi}, it makes this event so much more special to me.
Patton, the team president for the IU D2 Club Hockey team, first started raising money for cancer research as a student at Carmel High School in Indianapolis, when he made and sold bracelets in his spare time from class.
“In high school I first started selling wristbands,” Patton said. “I was selling them for $3 a wristband, and I’d make about $300-500 a year. That was the first time I really wanted to take the initiative and start wanting to do something myself.”
Though it may not have the attention as major D1 sports, organizers say the Drop the Puck event is a calling to create a better living environment and a call to action for those who hope to make changes in a changing world.