This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wake Forest chapter.
Ever since I was a freshman, Wake ‘N Shake has been a key date to mark on the calendar as something not to miss. Admittedly, it took some convincing for me to participate as a freshman, but I’m grateful that I caved under the pressure because 4 years of experience has given me all the perspective I need to understand how great of an event this is. Tragedies have come and gone in my family, just like for almost any other student at Wake, but moments like those drove me to actively create change and build hope out of despair. Fortunately, Wake ‘N Shake has emerged as the event of events for raising awareness, money, and hope for beating the disease that effects so many of the ones we love. For my final Wake ‘N Shake I am dancing for my aunt and grandmother, who have both died of lung cancer.
This year has been different than my WNS days of the past in that I have had the pleasure of working behind the scenes with the executive committee. I serve as the marketing co-chair alongside the dazzling Laura Trollinger, and together we’ve been the pair responsible for all the in-your-face flyers, buttons, banners and bullhorn yelling that anyone on campus should be well aware of by now. Being able to see behind the scenes has been an eye-opening experience.
I can definitively say that my greatest motivation for putting on a record-breaking (more like record-shattering) event this year came from my visit to the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. I had no idea how advanced Wake was in their cancer treatments, nor did I have any grasp on the exorbitant price of each of their machines. When I see a $5 million price tag on a gamma knife, a special type of radiation treatment for brain cancer, I think more and more as to how vital the money we raise is.
Wake ‘N Shake definitely receives my stamp of approval, and I seriously hope that my impromptu promotion onto the exec committee has had a positive effect. Being the only guy on the board has never bothered me and I hope that my passion for this event inspires other guys to get behind a dance marathon. If we can break records on the number of participants AND money raised this year, then I’ll be one happy camper (and dancer, for that matter). In the meantime, I say to all who are reading this: KEEP CALM AND WAKE ‘N SHAKE ON. WNS 2K12!!