Avery Erickson (PC’17) talks to us about her experience at Tri Delta X St. Jude Celebration.

There are an infinite amount of words I could use to describe St. Jude.

This children’s hospital brings feelings of comfort, joy, courage and most importantly, hope.

Upon arrival at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one thing was very obvious. While this may be a hospital, it looked anything but. The one aspect that really affects your understanding of St. Jude isn’t the hospital itself. It’s not Tri Delta Place, or Kay Cafe, it’s not even the doctors finding cures. What influences your viewpoint of St. Jude are the patients.

We had the absolute privilege of getting to hear patient after patient, past and present, recount their journey. On Saturday night, we heard from a panel of three patients from St. Jude: Emily, Ally & Madeline. These girls represent what it means to be a Tri Delta. They are brave, bold and kind, and I am so fortunate to call them my sisters. I could tell you about what they lost at St. Jude, trading in their healthy, normal lives for endless rounds of chemo and blood transfusions. Instead though, I want to tell you what they gained from St. Jude. These girls gained something we as Tri Delta’s value most....friendship.

During Emily and Ally’s time at St. Jude, they both found themselves hearing all about each other. The two met and describe their friendship as an instant connection. Another connection they formed together was their friendship with a girl named Lauren.

When Emily spoke about her St. Jude journey she said, “I can’t tell you my journey if I don’t tell you Lauren’s”. Even though Lauren wasn’t physically present on stage, you could see the influence she had amongst the girls she left behind.

As you can imagine, Lauren’s passing wrecked these two girls, Emily and Ally, and would continue to do so. But, these girls on stage, they weren’t sobbing for their late friend, they were rejoicing in her memory. Emily commented that not soon after Lauren had passed, she texted in their group message asking her friends, “What do we do now? What would Lauren do?” Ally’s response came easily, “makeup.”

So that day, and several other days, weeks, and even years later, the girls take the time to go all out with their makeup. Taking photos and posting them all over social media with the hashtag, #LooksForLauren.

After a heart felt and honest depiction of the situations these girls endured, Ally got rather emotional for the first time. She mentioned that her cancer is so unique, she’s the only one who has it.

By the way, she’s working on convincing the doctors to name it after her.

She mentioned that she had lost her short-term memory. So when on stage, in front of hundreds of people, she couldn’t remember the phrase “tweedle dee and tweedle dumb,” I cried.

Finally, Ally asked for our help.

When I looked up at this girl, I saw confidence, bravery, and a lightness that could have easily turned to darkness. And she was asking for our help. I couldn’t figure it out.

Turns out the tumor in Ally’s brain is back.

Her cancer is known for being one of the fastest growing cancers. Once it starts growing, rarely does it stop.

Ally needs our help. So, I set a reminder.

Friday, August 2nd, “Ally’s Scans.”

I ask all of you to be thinking of Ally during this time, and be as hopeful as she is about the outcome.

I want to thank Clemson Tri Delta for giving me the opportunity to attend St. Jude’s Celebration of the twenty-year partnership they’ve had with all of the Tri Delta chapters across the nation. I also want to thank St. Jude, for giving us a cause so worthy of our passion. And lastly, I want to thank the patients of St. Jude, for reliving their pain in hopes of ending the pain of others.

This year at the conference, Beta Theta chapter was honored to receive an award for “Most Passionate Chapter” for our work towards St. Jude. While we may not be the biggest chapter, this year we exceeded expectations and raised $137,816.25 for St. Jude!! We are so excited to have been named 7th Largest Fundraising Tri Delta chapter in the country!

I want to end this on an important note, though.

Based off the many hard to understand events from this summer, in both Memphis, and in Clemson, I would like to put into words what the weekend at St. Jude taught me.

Life is precious. It can be given as easily as taken. You only have one life to live. Laugh when you can, cry when you need to, and most importantly treat others the way you want to be treated. Kindness counts.
I’ll end with a quote by the founder of St. Jude, Danny Thomas:

“Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others.”

DLAM

Avery Erickson

PC ‘17