Greek Life Teams Up to Fight Childhood Cancer

Collegiate Panhellenic Council and Interfraternity Council support local families, including UMKC alumni

The students in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Collegiate Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils have two new small but mighty heroes.

Brooke, 6, and Olivia, 4, are two Kansas City-area kids who despite their young age, have already beaten a formidable foe: childhood cancer.

Brooke and Olivia were matched with the UMKC students as part of a national organization, B+ (Be Positive) Foundation. The foundation provides financial, emotional and advocacy support for families who are fighting childhood cancer. A signature of the group is matching children who are fighting cancer, whom they call heroes, with volunteers to provide support during their cancer journey.

That connection was key for the leaders of UMKC Greek Life's involvement in B+. Alana Lopez, a junior studying biology is the Collegiate Panhellenic Council's vice president of service and philanthropy and Baran Basu, a junior in biology, is vice president of community service and outreach of the Interfraternity Council. They have been leading their groups' involvement with B+.

"I remember when I first met Brooke, I was walking into the hospital room and she was yelling, 'She's here! She's here!'" Lopez said. "Having the B+ heroes just shows us how important philanthropy is, because we have such an emotional attachment and see the impact firsthand."

She's not the only one. Brooke's mom, Rachelle Parks-Rieckhoff, said what drew her to B+ was the chance for her daughter to get tangible support. She said Brooke counted down the minutes to her visits with the UMKC Greek Life students, who paid visits and sent cards to show their support for Brooke and Olivia.

"Raising money is amazing, but they are also doing things with the kids involved, which is nice," Parks-Rieckhoff said. "It kind of helped Brooke get through treatments this summer."

For Olivia's parents, Bre and Robert Robinson, that support came from a familiar place. Both are UMKC alumni who were involved in Greek Life. Bre, who graduated from the UMKC School of Nursing and Health Studies, was a Chi Omega, and Robert graduated from the UMKC School of Pharmacy and was part of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

"It can be pretty lonely, especially for the kids, and you have to stay pretty isolated because of the treatment that they are getting," Bre Robinson said. "So, I think it's cool that they are local and they could come play with the kids if that's something that they need to cheer them up during treatment."

One of the ways the group has shown their support is through the first-ever Roos for Relay, an event where the fraternities and sororities in the councils faced off for some good-natured competition. Brooke and Olivia's families also joined in on the fun.

"I love the girls who came to visit, but watching college-age boys play make believe with a 6-year-old girl little girl, and just go along with it, was so touching." Parks-Rieckhoff said. "One of them played dolls with her."

Being back in Durwood Stadium, where they'd played intramural sports in college, and listening to the Greek chants was a full circle moment for the Robinsons.

"You don't really think about where you're going to be in 10 years," Bre said. "It kind of was just a weird feeling, a cool feeling, that we could go back to where we went to college and try to make a difference, and we can go back there and try to raise awareness for something that we didn't even think about when we were in their shoes."

While both girls recently got news they are in remission, the families and Greek Life both say raising awareness of childhood cancer was a key motivator to keep going.

"Childhood cancer is like that taboo topic," Parks-Rieckhoff said. "No one wants to talk about it because it's scary, but a lot of kids end up with it. It's not rare."

The group has raised nearly $9,000 at Roos for Relay and expects to hit $10,000 in fundraising for the B+ organization by the end of the semester. The funds go to a general B+ endowment that families like the Parks-Rieckhoffs and Robinsons can access if needed.

Lopez and Basu are both planning on running for president of their councils in the coming year and plan to make B+ an annual tradition. In addition to forming connections with the families, they say it's brought students closer together too.

"UMKC Greek Life has never, ever done like a collaboration event live B+," Lopez said. "I think it's changing the future a little bit with Greek Life because we all need that collaboration sometimes, and it can be so easy to distance yourselves. But if we come together, we can raise so much more money than individually and just have a better college experience in general."