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Up ‘til Dawn hosted its grand finale, complete with food and games, starting Friday at 8 p.m. and ending at 2 a.m. Saturday in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex field house.

Up ‘til Dawn is a non-profit organization that raises money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“Up ‘til Dawn on St. Thomas’ campus has been around for about 10 years. It is a part of a nation-wide movement,” said Amanda Cahow, regional marketing manager at St. Jude. “St. Thomas has been a part of it for a very long time; one of the trail-blazers in the program and they do a fantastic job.”

The event was for St. Thomas students to celebrate their fundraising efforts for the program.

“This year [more than] $66,000 was raised, and there are tons of students here, and a lot of fantastic support from the community,” she said. Last year, St. Thomas raised about $70,000 for St. Jude’s.

The night included henna tattoos, horse racing, wax hands, a performance by Lotus Eaters and a dance tutorial from PULSE. Katy Sunnarborg, executive director of Up ‘til Dawn at St. Thomas, said it took a lot of work to put together the event.

“We have a phenomenal executive board this year. It was really a team effort, and we’ve been working on it since November,” Sunnarborg said. “ It’s just putting all of this and getting it together because the St. Thomas students deserve a celebration.”

Many of the students there said that after hearing some of the stories of children helped by St. Jude’s, they felt compelled to help with Up ‘til Dawn any way they could.

“I went to the pre-discussion of this, and just watching the slideshows of the little girls, why wouldn’t you want to help out these kids?” freshman Meagan McCoy said.

Tarkor Zehn can be reached at zehn0241@stthomas.edu.