Team hopes to learn from this year's event

Plans are under way to make next year's walk to a Pittsburgh hospital bigger.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Their weekend walk to raise money for Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh has netted only about $1,600 so far, but the members of Penguin Icebreakers aren't discouraged.
They had set a goal of $20,000 for the first of what is expected to become an annual 100-mile fund-raising trek from the Youngstown State University campus to Pittsburgh.
Penguin Icebreakers is a newly formed student recruitment team at YSU and operates from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
The group didn't know how much money it might collect during the Friday and Saturday walk to Pittsburgh.
"We're not disappointed," said Christopher McKee Jr. "It was our first time out."
Money from the walk is still coming in, said Todd Pilipovich, YSU admissions coordinator and Icebreakers adviser.
People who made pledges and wrote checks are still arriving, he said Monday. Those who haven't made pledges but want to help can also send checks, made out to The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, to Penguin Icebreakers, Sweeney Hall, Youngstown State University, Youngstown 44555, he said.
Hoping to increase momentum
Just 14 people participated in the walk and raising $1,600 was an admirable amount, Pilipovich said, adding that the group intends to raise more next year.
The date for that walk has already been set for Dec. 1 and 2, 2006.
This is a new event for YSU and it will take time to develop a following and community support, he said.
Pilipovich was a member of the now-defunct Phi Theta Phi fraternity at Thiel College in Greenville , Pa., that instituted the 100-mile walk for Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh nearly four decades ago, raising more than $1 million for the hospital over 35 years.
The fraternity was disbanded three years ago.
Pilipovich took part in some of those earlier walks and brought the idea to YSU.
He said eight people from YSU took part in the weekend walk and six members of the Phi Theta Phi Alumni Association participated as well.
The group left from Sweeney Hall Friday morning, spent the night in a church in Freeport, Pa., and worked their way to the hospital on Saturday, handing over the money they collected enroute and handing out stuffed animals to patients while touring the facility.
gwin@vindy.com