- Kyra Papafil ('04)

Jen Granito ('04) visits with Valerie, a leukemia patient at St. Jude's Target House in July. Valerie spoke to 300-plus student and university representatives at a summer 2003 conference for St. Jude's volunteers from 110 schools.

"I didn't just want to go to college without getting involved," says Jen Granito ('04), a marketing major from Harrisburg, Pa. "I wanted to do something worthwhile -- above and beyond keeping up the grades -- while I was here." The senior Sigma Sigma Sigma member and assistant Greek life coordinator has used that JMU all together one spirit to help reach out to some special children.

Through annual marathon fund-raisers called Up 'Til Dawn, Jen and other JMU students have helped raise more than $25,000 in the past two years for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Organizing Up 'Til Dawn to aid cancer research is one of Granito's proudest accomplishments. "I think it's one way for me to give back to not only to the JMU community's outreach, but also to help the important work going on at St. Jude's," she says. 

The Up 'Til Dawn idea was established by college students in Memphis, Tenn., five years ago and since then has become an annual event at more than 100 colleges and universities nationwide, raising more than $3.5 million.

Granito established JMU's Up 'Til Dawn event in 2001 with the help of Jen Oberholtzer ('03). After landing a summer 2003 internship with Target Corp. (during JMU's spring internship fair), Granito found herself tying together her community service with her internship. She visited the St. Jude's Target House in Memphis in July to talk to patients and families. The house is an apartment-style complex for the families of patients who will be treated for six months or more. St. Jude's researches cures and treatments for childhood cancers, genetic disorders and HIV.

"St. Jude's doesn't reject any patients on their ability to pay for treatment," says Granito. "Having the opportunity to working with the most caring, open-minded, dedicated people -- both at St. Jude's and JMU -- has been an awesome experience."