Despite falling temperatures and looming clouds, about 65 people gathered at LaFollette Field Friday night for Judy's Hope, a fundraiser for breast cancer research until the weather broke the group apart an hour early.
Students, family and faculty walked for five hours and played Texas Hold 'em poker to raise $1,500 and awareness for two Ball State University seniors' Honors College thesis.
All the proceeds are going to the Indiana University Breast Cancer Research Center.
Before the event even started, Michele Newsome and Amy Rumschlag, program organizers, estimated they raised about $650 from people who could not attend the walk. While the two solicited donations from local businesses, the only people who donated were Starbucks employees, who donated out of their own tips.
During Judy's Hope, people made donations in order to walk, to play poker or simply to support the fundraiser. By the end of the night, the total amount of money raised was $1,500.
The event started at 6 p.m. with a speaker from the Ball Cancer Center, then Newsome read names of people affected by breast cancer and ended the reading with a moment of silence.
The walk began with 34 people walking around the field. As the event continued, teams swapped out walkers, but the walk ended early because of bad weather. Many people left when it became cold and looked like it could storm.
The Texas Hold 'em tournament began at 6:20 p.m. Chips had to be redistributed for the three round, single elimination tournament because 17 people played, which is fewer than Newsome said she expected.
"I joined to be active in the community. Plus it's a really good cause," senior Chris Calhoun, who played in the tournament, said.
Rumschlag said she anticipated walk participants to be mostly women, but the poker tournament was a way to get men involved as well.
"We weren't sure about male participants, so we thought of something that wouldn't take as much commitment as a six-hour walk," Newsome said.
Newsome and Rumschlag also passed out 100 pink wrist bands from the Susan G. Coleman Breast Cancer Foundation to people who walked, volunteered and the poker players.
Both Rumschlag and Newsome said they considered the event a big success, as they had people signing up and donating to join the walk well into the night.
"I wanted to give a special thanks to everyone that stepped up during the event," Newsome said.
Both girls had to help with signing up people, collecting donations and running the event from their family, friends and faculty. Rumschlag and Newsome said their faculty advisor, Cheryl Bove, assistant professor of English, helped them every step of the way.
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