Students have the opportunity this week to play a role in the fight against childhood cancer.

Because this week is Childhood Cancer Awareness Week, the student-led organization Up ‘til Dawn will hold events around campus to raise awareness of childhood cancer and to collect donations for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Brittany Covington, Up ‘til Dawn’s vice president of recruitment and a sophomore majoring in biology, said the organization is trying to help spread the word.

“We are hoping to get the word out of our organization and raise money for St. Jude,” Covington said.

Covington said in addition to a variety of events planned for this week, Up ‘til Dawn will host a tailgate at the Georgia State game.

Covington said the organization’s most anticipated event, however, is its “Letter Writing” initiative set to take place in the Ferguson Student Center on Nov. 16.

Student organizations, or any person interested, will be encouraged to have their members collect addresses of potential donors who can contribute needed funds to St. Jude. Up ‘til Dawn will hand out letters to be personalized by the members who have addresses of prospective donors on hand.

Chris Brandt, Up ‘til Dawn’s sponsorship chairman and a senior majoring in kinesiology, said St. Jude garners on average about $100 per letter sent.

Covington said Up ‘til Dawn last year raised more than $10,000 for St. Jude, and she said the organization hopes to surpass that amount with this year’s fundraising.

Brandt said Up ‘til Dawn has made some progress in galvanizing students to take a proactive interest in the fight against childhood cancer.

“I have heard positive feedback,” Brandt said. “We had a booth out [during Get On Board Day] and had a lot of positive feedback then. Hopefully, it’ll pick up.”

Brandt said the organization currently boasts the largest committee of Up ‘til Dawn in the chapter’s history at the Capstone.

Will Cravens, a student volunteer for Up ‘til Dawn and a freshman majoring in public relations, said he collected donations on Tuesday that will benefit St. Jude.

“Today, we stood out in the middle of the Quad collecting money and getting donations,” Cravens said. “Overall, we’ve been getting a lot of donations.”

Brandt said the projection for this year’s donations will depend on the next few weeks of preparation for the “Letter Writing” and the amount of people involved in the fundraising.

“We definitely want to go above [$10,000],” Brandt said. “But we got a while until our main event.”