wednesday, march 3, 2004
news
the university daily kansan
5A
Fund-raising forfather
By Samia Khan skhan@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Jim Bridges remember being called into the principal's office when he was in the first grade and wondering what he'd done wrong.
He walked in and saw his sister crying uncontrollably. His mother, who was also there, told him what had happened. Bridges' father, Robert Huffman, had just died of Amvotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a motor neuron disease without a cure. It results in gradual paralysis and death three to five years after diagnosis. Bridges remembers his father slowly losing control of his muscles. The worst part is knowing his father could think clearly but couldn't communicate, he said.
Now Bridges, Oklahoma City sophomore, has helped raise more than $11,000 for the disease. He is co-philanthropy chairman
for his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. This year he organized an auction for Dad's Day that raised $3,000.
His biggest accomplishment was the Robert Huffman Basketball Bash, a fundraising basketball tournament Feb. 13 to 15. The tournament was a big event for the fraternity in past decades after a member of the fraternity was diagnosed with ALS in 1974.
Bridges wanted to rebuild the tournament's importance to honor his father and raise more money. Bridges nearly tripled the money raised from last year's tournament.
A letter-writing campaign, in conjunction with the tournament, solicited sponsors and donations, raising $8,000. Bridge and his fraternity will combine the money from this year's fundraisers with money raised last year and present a check to George Brett at a charity golf tournament on May 24. The money will be donated to the ALS Association of Kansas City and
used for research and nurses' salaries. Bridges said he hoped to write the check for $18,000.
After deciding he was coming to the University of Kansas and joining Phi Delta Theta, Bridges discovered ALS was the fraternity's philanthropy. Lou Gehrig was a member of Phi Delta Theta at Columbia University. This made him more sure of his decision.
His fraternity brothers helped him send more than 1,000 letters to fraternity alumni. Each member of the house sent two letters to their family and friends. Bridges raised more than $3,000 just from the letters sent to his personal friends and relatives in Oklahoma.
His best friend from high school, Kylee Belflower, Oklahoma City sophomore, helped him set up the tournament and send letters. She said it was easy to get so much support and money because everyone who knew Bridges respected him and wanted to help.
"He's such a humble person,"
Jim Bridges, Oklahoma City sophomore, displayed a banner that was used to promote a basketball charity for Phi Delta Theta. The event raised over $11,000 to help fight Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, often called Lou Gehrig's disease.
Brent Carter/Kansan
Bellflower said. "He didn't even want to tell anyone how much money he raised."
For years he wasn't able to openly talk about his father's death. He said people had to pry the information out. Now he is open, and uses it as motivation to help people understand the disease.
Bridges'mother, Kathy, said that her son could have taken a lot of
bad turns after his father's death,
but instead it made him stronger.
She said her son's hard work to raise money was an example of how the struggle built his character.
"It's one of those major mommy moments when I'm just so proud of him," she said.
After the tournament, the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, who won the women's division.
visited Bridges at the bar where he works. They wore the tournament T-shirts with his father's name on the back and brought the championship trophy. The women drank to his father's memory to the song "We are the Champions."
"He would have wanted it that way," Bridges said.
Edited by Paul Kramer
VOTES: Feelings mixed on importance of voting involvement
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Next to the table, Katherine Whitson, Freshman Leadership Council member, yelled at people passing by as they hustled from class to class.
"Wanna register to vote?" she said.
A woman adjusted her back
pack and glanced around.
"Who, me? Oh, no. No thanks," she said.
Another student turned Whitson down just as quickly. Unfazed, she yelled at every student who walked by.
"She's a go-getter," Sterner said.
Then Liane Eisenbart, Ottawa
sophomore, walked up to the table and grabbed a pen.
Eisenbart had been registered to vote in New Mexico, where she previously lived, but needed to register in Lawrence, she said.
"I like to vote," she said. "I think I have a right to complain."
After Eisenbart, Bret Winblad
approached the table
"Sebelius is a Democrat, right?" Winblad said, grabbing for the pen and registration form.
The Winfield junior didn't care about voting in high school.
He assumed Kansas voters always voted Republican—until Kathleen Sebelius won the governorship in 2002.
Then Winblad noticed his tuition increasing and Sebelius enacting policies he didn't agree with.
"It's different now that I'm in college," he said. "It affects me a lot more now."
Which is exactly why students should vote, Whitson said.
other without involving politics, Whitson said wanted to register voters because a surge of youth voters could drastically affect the issues politicians talk about.
Although she said volunteering was important because it allowed people to help each
"We have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world," Whitson said. "If every college student voted, we would decide elections."
— Edited by Henry C. Jackson
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