Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette A red-painted bathtub on wheels, dozens of fraternity members pledging their time, the strength to persevere and one goal: raising money to help children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

HOUGHTON — The brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon dedicated the entirety of their Wednesday to wheel a bathtub from the William J. Bernard Jr. Family Clock Tower on the west end of the Michigan Technological University campus, to Walker Arts and Humanities Center on the east end, then all the way back around.

During the day, TKE took donations from students and donors online, with proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

MTU’s campus is home to 21 registered fraternities and sororities. According to the Greek Life page on MTU’s website, the chapters include 676 active members, about 11 percent of the undergraduate student population.

This small portion of undergraduates at Michigan Tech, like those at TKE, donate their time, energy and money to help out different philanthropic causes. Sometimes that energy can be a little unconventional, like with Wednesday’s event, where every five dollars donated equates to a full lap around campus pushing the tub.

According to TKE Adviser Susan Liebau, their St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Fundraiser event is the third time this academic year that TKE has done to benefit St. Jude, the first of which was a backyard benefit concert, another was a bake sale during MTU’s Winter Carnival.

The goal Wednesday was to push the tub non-stop and raise donations for St. Jude. According to the hospital’s website, St. Jude is a donation-funded speciality children’s hospital where parents never receive any sort of bill for any expenses accumulated while treatment is being provided.

They treat childhood cancer and other life-threatening pediatric diseases. St. Jude relies almost entirely on donations to run their practice, this means that anyone can make a difference, including college students.

According to Philanthropy Chair, Colin Nowicki approximately 40 people donated $500 as of press time on Wednesday. The brothers of TKE are expected to complete at least 100 laps of tub-pushing on campus Wednesday.

“Every dollar goes a long way, and people say ‘the money is not going to help at all,’ but every cent counts,” Nowicki said. “The students, parents and friends that are all donating — it means so much to [St. Jude].”

The 10 a.m. saw brothers Ron Kuitula and Isaac Zull push the tub for one of the first laps of the day. Zull was steering the tub for the first few laps while Kuitula pushed the back of the tub. While helping out, Zull spoke about how being a part of TKE fulfills him in many different ways.

“Being a part of [Tau Kappa Epsilon] is awesome, we like to push hard in our academics, we take care of a good social life… when it comes to giving back to our community we push even harder,” he said.

Many students on campus stopped to watch and ask about how they could donate to the cause. Nowicki, Kuitula and Zull flagged down students and TKE brothers who were out and about to ask for any support — whether it be financially or by helping out pushing the tub.

TKE brothers rotated in shifts throughout the day and helped out pushing their red chariot. Liebau spoke further how the fraternity is coming together to support each other and St. Jude by dedicating themselves to something greater than themselves.

“There’s a lot of effort that goes into it,” she said. “They put a lot of effort into [the event], the whole chapter participates and everyone contributes.”

To learn more about the event and to donate, visit Tau Kappa Epsilon’s Facebook page or make a direct contribution at stjude.org/donate.