Night of dancing at Cancer Ball contributes to research efforts

Six years ago, a group of University students convened at Center City's Liberty Place for the first annual Penn Against Cancer Ball. Continuing this tradition, 800 students congregated in tuxedos and evening gowns at the Franklin Institute Thursday night to contribute once again to the fight against cancer. Accumulating over $12,000 from the sale of the ball's $40 admission tickets, the members of Penn Against Cancer added to the over $70,000 they have donated to the Pennsylvania Cancer Society since the ball's inception. The money goes toward the education, detection, prevention and research of cancer. "We have people who come to our apartments with ideas about cures for cancer and the money they raise here allows us to give a grant to maybe just one more scientist who might otherwise have been turned away," Chris Barnnigan of the American Cancer Society said. "I knew a mother who got a mammography through our education program who would not have otherwise gotten one," Barnnigan added. The Cancer Ball came together through the efforts of a seven-person staff led by College senior Andrew Rodbell. "People constantly volunteer, and we negotiate who will help on the basis of character; and then train them to move on as freshmen to take a larger and larger role each year," said Rodbell, who called past organizers of the event for advice on how to overcome the problems he encountered. Rodbell said he takes pride in the memorable time Cancer Ball attendants have for such a noble cause. He added that the legacy of Penn Against Cancer allows its members to achieve the college ideal of helping others. "It's more than just Wall Street or an internship but about leaving something meaningful and lasting behind? making a difference in someone else's life," Rodbell said. "I came to college like everyone else with the ideal of making a difference in the world and this lets me do a little of that." Rodbell walks in the footsteps of his older brother, Jonathan, a 1994 Wharton graduate who founded and helped organize the first Cancer Ball. A high school football player afflicted with Hodgkin's Disease at 17 -- a type of cancer affecting the lymph nodes -- the elder Rodbell overcame the disease in time to hold the first ball six years ago. "I'm sure that I'll reflect sometime on how cancer is a disease that affects me personally and shapes everyone's life," said Rodbell, remembering his brother and grandfather who both had cancer. Wharton sophomore Melanie Trainer echoed Rodbell's expression of the disease's far-reaching extent. "I'm thinking about my two grandfathers who have died from cancer -- I'll leave tonight thinking about them. But maybe because of this, someone else's grandparents might survive," she said. Rodbell, however, does not see himself furthering the memory of his brother's legacy but instead working for an event that goes beyond his family to the many cancer patients who await the research and care the ball's funding will provide. "A lot of people had a fun time here tonight also and got to see all their friends and walk out with the memory of the good time they had," he said. "Hopefully they will also walk out remembering what they were here for and how they can make a difference." Barnnigan said he saw promise for the future amidst the dancing crowds assembled on the floor. "You hear the term 'I have cancer' and it's a very scary thing, and maybe twenty years from now with these people that phrase might mean the same thing," he said.