The Up ‘til Dawn student organization, which raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in an effort to help child cancer patients in the Metro Detroit area, raised $25,635 during its letter writing campaign held in November 2006. The total was announced at the organization’s finale celebration held earlier this month.

“At the letter writing party, students address pre-written letters to family and friends telling them about St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and asking them to make a donation,” said Amanda Rymiszewski, executive director of Up ‘til Dawn. “This year we sent out 5,395 letters and had 326 participants.”

The $25,635 is a large increase over the $8,400 raised last year and sets a new bar for Up ‘til Dawn’s future campaigns.

“It was great that we were able to raise so much more this year. Hopefully next year we will be able to raise even more than we did this year,” said Rymiszewski.

To celebrate the success of the letter writing campaign, Up ‘til Dawn hosted a festival for the OU community and St. Jude’s children earlier this month. Up ‘til Dawn announced the grand total of money raised and gave out prizes to participants.