Purdue students help supply iPads for young cancer patients

November 13, 2014  


Caleb charity

Rachael Franko with Caleb (left) and Carson Hoppe.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Challenged to raise money for charity, a class of Purdue University students doubled its goal and is helping provide iPads for young cancer patients in South Bend and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The 35 students in the Department of Consumer Science selling and sales management program's (http://www.purdue.edu/hhs/csr/ undergraduate/majors/sell/) senior capstone class this semester raised more than $6,000 in less than a week for iCaleb, (http://icalebandco.org) the charity founded in honor of Caleb Hoppe, a 3-year-old battling leukemia.

 Each semester, Chris Kowal, an assistant professor of consumer science and director of the Center for Professional Selling, divides the capstone class into teams, and each team works on a project for a local business.

"Before they start on the projects, I give them a one-week assignment to raise money for a charity as a way of seeing how the teams will work together," Kowal said.

Sometimes the teams raise money for individual charities. This year, the class decided that all the teams would raise money for iCaleb.

The charity was suggested by class member Rachael Franko. Franko, a senior in selling and sales management from Winamac, Indiana, is a Purdue cheerleader. She learned about Caleb and the charity through one of her fellow cheerleaders who is Caleb's aunt.

"I had been wanting to do something to help iCaleb, and the class members thought is was a great idea," Franko said. "Who doesn't want to help a little boy with cancer? In six days, we doubled what we expected to raise."

Each team raised money separately, Franko said. Some used social media. Others solicited donations from local businesses. One team collected money outside a football game.

Andrea and Seth Hoppe came up with the idea for iCaleb after their son was diagnosed in May 2012. He was 17 months old, and to help keep him quiet and entertained while he was hospitalized and receiving treatments, they got him an iPad. The iPad also let him stay in touch through Facetime with his twin, Carson. The boys had never been apart until then, so letting them see each other was important, Andrea Hoppe said.

The Hoppes, with support from Apple, decided to start raising money to provide other young cancer patients at South Bend Memorial Hospital with iPads. Recently, they expanded the program to Fort Wayne Children's Hospital.

Each child is given an iPad, a $100 iTunes card and an Otter box to protect the tablet. The children keep the iPads when they leave the hospital.

So far, iCaleb has provided 45 iPads to children at the South Bend hospital and 20 in Fort Wayne, Hoppe said.

Hoppe said she was stunned when she got the call telling her that the class had raised more than double the $3,000 goal.

"We are so humbled by your generous donations and by handing out these gifts in your name," she wrote to the class. "The patients normally smile and/or cry because taking daily IV chemo treatments leaves them bedridden, and any distraction is a welcome distraction."

Caleb and Carson will turn 4 in December. Caleb is doing well but faces another nine months of treatment, Hoppe said.

Kowal said his capstone classes have raised almost $17,000 over seven semesters. On a per student basis, this semester's class was the most successful, he said.

More information about iCaleb is available at http://icalebandco.org 

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu

Sources: Christopher Kowal, 765-494-9245, ckowal@purdue.edu

Rachael Franko, franko@purdue.edu

Andrea Hoppe, andreahoppe2@gmail.com 

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2014-18 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Integrity Statement | Copyright Complaints | Brand Toolkit | Maintained by Marketing and Media

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact us at online@purdue.edu so we can help.