Mizzou AEPi’s Rock-A-Thon Philanthropy Looks To Break Own Record For Largest Single Chapter Donation In U.S. History

Rob Fox10 years ago

One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Do you know what that can buy a fraternity? That’s enough to pay Waka Flocka to be a recurring performer at your house, like it’s a damn Las Vegas casino. That’s worth roughly eight million bottles of Old Crow whiskey, or, better yet, it could buy the RV Old Crow whiskey is distilled in and move it to your fraternity’s parking lot. It could pay for a basement beach party wherein, instead of making a crappy beach in your basement, you go to an actual beach and recreate your fraternity’s basement on it (someone please do this).

$150,000 is also a hell of a lot of money to donate to cancer research, and that’s exactly what the gentlemen of the University of Missouri’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter intend to do with it after they raise that insane amount with their Rock-A-Thon philanthropy, which began this morning.

If that amount sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. It would break the all time largest single-chapter fraternity and sorority philanthropy donation record. A record, incidentally, that is also held by Mizzou’s AEPi chapter. And they set that record a mere two years ago. Apparently when the AEPis go out canning people are shoving hundred dollar bills and Apple stock into their coffee cans.

The philanthropy centers around an AEPi brother who is chosen by the chapter to sit on a rocking chair in downtown Columbia, MO for 63 straight hours, without getting up to eat, sleep, relieve himself, or do anything else private, like watch videos of middle-aged women testing the ripeness of bananas at the grocery store that I filmed. You know, private stuff. He’s a rocking chair warrior.

Meanwhile, the rest of the brothers are all over Columbia and the rest of Missouri hustling for donations. Here’s the full rundown on the philanthropy, from AEPi’s press release.

COLUMBIA — There are a dance-a-thons, races and relays that raise money for the fight against cancer across the country. And since 1969, every two years, there’s been one university student in Columbia, Missouri sitting in a rocking chair on a stage in downtown Columbia for 63 hours. He doesn’t move to eat, sleep or even answer the call of nature and it’s all in the name of fighting cancer. He’s the Alpha Epsilon Pi rocker and the symbol of Rock-A-Thon, the philanthropy of the men of the Mu Deuteron chapter at the University of Missouri.

The rocker is elected by his peers and while he rocks for the weekend, his brothers and other volunteers will canvass the state, coffee cans in hand, to solicit donations. Jason Hoffman, a senior broadcast journalism student, is honored to have been elected the rocker for 2015.

All proceeds of this unique philanthropy go to the American Cancer Society for the purpose of cancer research. This year, Rock-A-Thon is highlighting skin cancer research and the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, in particular. Despite being one of the easiest cancers to detect and prevent, melanoma rates have been steadily rising over the past 40 years. More than 50,000 people will be diagnosed in the United States in 2015 alone.

In 2013, Rock-A-Thon raised $123,000 for lung cancer research, setting a record as the largest single-chapter fraternity and sorority philanthropy in North America. Records are made to be broken and with the aid of our partners, Central Missouri Dermatology and Mohs Skin Cancer Surgery and the central Missouri chapter of the American Cancer Society, we will do so in 2015.

Rock-A-Thon 2015 will begin at 7 a.m. on April 23 and end at 10 p.m. April 25. The event will be hosted on a stage at the northwest corner of Ninth and Broadway in downtown Columbia. Come on out and join us because #TogetherWeCan!

In my opinion, Rock-A-Thon is one of the best Greek philanthropies in the country. First and most importantly, it supports an amazing cause, and supports it pretty damn well. Also, it’s the type of thing that Greeks should be spotlighted for, but aren’t often enough. So help fight cancer, and help make our contributions to society too big to ignore. You can donate to Rock-A-Thon here. You can also follow the philanthropy and this year’s rocker’s progress on Twitter. To learn more about the philanthropy in general, you can also check out their website.

Best of luck boys. And, again, feel free to donate here..