Student helps raise over $1,000 for charity

While most students spend their time partying, Elizabeth Rachlin devotes her time to helping others battle cancer. Rachlin, a junior at Shippensburg University, was involved in running this year’s second annual KupKakes for Kris 5K run.

She is a communication/ journalism major at SU, with an emphasis in public relations, and she used her knowledge and experiences of event planning and PR to put together this year’s charity event.

The event took place on Sunday, April 14 and helped raise more than $1,000 for Kukpakes for Kris, a charity that aids families financially with the costs of cancer treatments.

Raising so much money was important to her, because it was a major improvement from last year. Through social media promotions, word of mouth and blog posts, Rachlin was able to get 30 runners for the event.

The preparation for the 5K began five months ago and with the help of her committee team, she was able to get local companies involved with the charity.

Rachlin and her group sent out more than 20 donation letters and soon companies like Sheetz, Planet Fitness, Select Diner and Volvo Construction were able to provide things like cupcakes, bottled water for the runners and gift cards for participants.

On her love for giving back Rachlin said, “Charity is something that is really important to me. Working on an event for so long and seeing such a great outcome makes all the hard work worth it.”

She is also involved with Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and helps out with SU’s radio station WSYC-FM 88.7. She also participated in this year’s WSYC event “Up All Night”, in which she had an on- air time slot of 3 a.m. and gave away the prize of two tickets to see Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z to a lucky student.

On the importance of staying active at Shippensburg University, Rachlin said, “I think it’s important, especially for our major to get involved with student media so you can get real experience.”

Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with her family and going to the beach frequently in the summer. She is also a huge running fanatic and played field hockey for 13 years. After she graduates from SU, Rachlin hopes to pursue a career as a traveling event planner.