Colleges Against Cancer comes to Hood

A recently formed club at Hood College is making a difference for cancer patients and survivors, both locally and across the nation.
Emily Zimmerman, a Hood sophomore founded the Hood College chapter of Colleges Against Cancer. This organization is a collaboration between college students and staff in support of the American Cancer Society (ACS.) While there are many chapters across the country, this is the first time that Hood has gotten its own chapter here in Frederick.
The club was approved at Hood in October. Since then, they have had three meetings, but plan to meet twice a month on Sunday nights.
So far, there are fifteen student members in the club and Zimmerman hopes that the club’s size will expand as more people find out about it. One Hood professor and two advisors from the Frederick chapter of the ACS are also involved with the club.
“It’s a nationwide club so we’re just a chapter of it,” Zimmerman explained. “The club is run by the American Cancer Society.”
Any money the club gets goes to the American Cancer Society, she added. Since the formation of the club, Hood’s CAC has devised multiple ways of raising money for the ACS.

One of the club’s first endeavors included selling T-shirts to raise money. The shirts will be available until April. They also sold paper cupcakes for $1 so that students and staff could write their names on them and display them in Whitaker.
The club is also in the process of making “lily pads” for the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Oncology ward. These lily pads, shaped like their namesake, are hard platforms that fit around a child’s IV pole and allow the kids to be more mobile; they can sit or stand on the pad. The pads are painted with cheerful designs and colors.
“We had a rough start trying to figure out how to start [the club],” Zimmerman admitted. “Some things happened and we didn’t get approved until October. I was getting frustrated but in the end we ended up getting approved.”
The club recently held a 50/50 raffle at the High School Championship Basketball Tournament and was able to donate approximately $450 to the ACS.
“Our goal is to raise as much money as possible for the ACS because it goes to anybody who has cancer within the United States,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman has high hopes that the club will carry on at Hood after she graduates. So far, there are three freshmen in the group who can continue the club’s legacy.
Anyone wishing to donate, can mail donations to Zimmerman’s Hood mailbox at 401 Rosemont Ave, 1137, Frederick, MD 21701-8524. Checks are payable to Hood College, but the memo line should state that it is for Colleges Against Cancer.