By Catherine Moore
On October 3, 2009, my senior year of college, I was able to start a fundraiser in honor of my father called Kick Pancreatic Cancer (K.P.C.). The event was a soccer match held at Waynesburg University. My soccer team played in purple and raised money for the Hirshberg Foundation. The first year we raised over $12,000. Since then Waynesburg University Soccer Team has made K.P.C. an annual event and continues to raise money and awareness for pancreatic cancer.
I started K.P.C. as a way to deal with the pancreatic cancer diagnosis of my Dad in August, 2009. I have since graduated and needed another way to express my concern and raise awareness, so three close friends (Kenny Cline, Kristin Johnson, and Annie Campbell) and I created Purple Palooza. Purple Palooza was to be a formal night of dinner, dancing, games, and silent auctions. This was going to swing our fundraising in a different direction but was sure to catch the eye of our local community.
My dad, Ken Moore, was a large figure in many different organizations in my local community and in a variety of businesses. Once the news of his condition was heard and felt, the support was behind us. We met with our local hospital, local paper, radio station, and several businesses where we began our advertising and our invitation list. The donations of items for our auction and our game prizes came in double what we were expecting and they came from all sorts of donors.
Without hesitation our event was on its way to being a hit, but then my family situation began to cause our planning and preparation process to be put on hold. My dad had gone in for a normal procedure but complications arose in the healing process causing him to stay hospitalized. This situation was confusing and heart breaking and before we could get him home, he passed away on November 6, 2010, just seven days before Palooza. I had a great group of friends and co-coordinators who took the reins for me and continued to plan for the couple of days I took to be with family.
Questions of whether we should cancel or reschedule came about but my Dad was someone who made things happen no matter what and I couldn’t cancel something he and I started and worked very hard at creating. With that mind-set, we rushed like crazy to make up for some of the time lost. The morning of November 13 came and it was time for us to set up our hall for the event. We had so much to do – scaffolding, tulle, balloons, center pieces, coffee mugs, decorations, auction items and more – but with the help of more friends and family, we were able to set up for our start time of 5:00pm.
As the nerves and tension were at their highest, the doors opened, people came in and the check-in table became flooded. The turnout was greater than expected and it was one of my proudest moments. Once everyone was seated and the silent auction and dinner were underway, I looked to my family. I knew that my dad was smiling and that we all had made him proud. We had three games running throughout the evening, as well as a mystery box raffle and a 50/50 raffle. Our photographer for the evening, who donated her time, took outstanding photos so we were able to document our night in a scrapbook and create a slideshow to capture our smiles and outstanding moments.
Prizes were won and memories were made. All in all it was a great night in charity and fellowship. That evening we raised over $8,000 and through additional donations reached a grand total of $20,000. The co-coordinators of the event all shared a personal relationship with my dad, who was our boss at Fort Steuben Scout Reservation, our mentor, close friend, and role model. We were all touched by the turn-out, shocked by the amount raised, and are excited to report that we will be holding another Purple Palooza on November 19, 2011 at the St. Florian Hall in Wintersville, Ohio.