Each year Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity hosts their annual philanthropy event, Rock Against Cancer. They invite an artist to come perform in order to raise money for charities as well as a certain individual who needs it. This year the money raised was for Rick Foglio, father of Danielle Foglio, junior criminal justice major and member of Theta Phi Alpha. Rock Against Cancer was hosted on Mar. 21 in the Greenfelder-Denlinger Boardrooms.
Rock Against Cancer started off with Saint Leo students doing lip sync performances. Allison Ward, junior sports business major and member of Theta Phi Alpha, started off the night with her performance of “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys. David O’Brien, senior communications management major and member of Sigma Lambda fraternity, and Genesiz Paredes, sophomore psychology major and member of theta phi alpha followed with Linkin Park’s song “Numb.”
David said the song was how, “[I feel] about the next few weeks left of school.”
Next was Daniel Stockton, junior criminal justice major, and Scottie Dannelly, senior accounting major, both members of Tau Kappa Epsilon, who performed a Taylor Swift song. The lip syncing finished with Andrea Findley, sophomore computer science major and Ramia Barnhill, senior social work major, both members of Theta Phi Alpha, who performed “Same Girl” by R. Kelly and Usher while dressed up in character as Danielle Foglio sat on stage in between them as the “same girl” that they were singing about.
This year the performer was Ryan Calhoun: Calhoun is a Atlanta/Nashville based singer/songwriter and has previously been seen in an array of television and film placements. He has five songs that have reached the top ten placement on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart, including his breakout single “Who We Are,” which was number one, his album “Everything That I’m Not” that reached number 3, and with a total of over 46,000 records sold. Calhoun has collaborated with well-known writers such as Simon Wilcox, who worked with Nick Jonas, Raine Maida, who has worked with Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson, and many others.
Calhoun started the event with a well-known oldie, but goodie song, “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He then went on to sing his own song, “Stolen Car,” as the crowd clapped and sang along to the chorus. Calhoun switched between his songs and well known songs from Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Journey, Bon Jovi, Lady Antebellum, and more. It didn’t take long before there was a crowd up and dancing and singing along in front of Calhoun.
Rock Against Cancer was a huge hit, Calhoun rocked the night away. The fraternity raised over $1,000 for Foglio and is still continuing their efforts to do so with a GoFundMe page.
