Icebreakers, friends get to steppin’ to raise funds

By Harold Gwin

The group will be at the Steelers/Browns game Dec. 28 to continue raising money.

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of the Penguin Icebreakers at Youngstown State University didn’t let things such as a faltering economy and icy cold weather hinder their efforts to raise money during a two-day walk to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The group, aided by alumni of the now-defunct Phi Theta Phi fraternity at Thiel College in Greenville, raised $10,000 along the 100-mile route Friday and Saturday and “are still counting,” said Todd Pilipovich, a YSU admissions coordinator and adviser to the Icebreakers.

“We did very amazing so far,” he said, noting that buckets of coins collected during the trek will be taken to PNC Bank in Youngstown on Thursday to be counted.

The group will be at the Steelers/Browns football game in Pittsburgh on Dec. 28 to continue its fund-raising efforts, soliciting donations outside the stadium, Pilipovich said, noting that the Steelers invited the group and provided them with 90 game tickets.

The weekend weather wasn’t so great, but everybody stuck it out, Pilipovich said, noting that the last two miles of the walk up Fifth Avenue to Children’s Hospital on Saturday were extremely icy, but everyone made the trip unscathed.

The Icebreakers, a student recruitment team operated out of YSU’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, got involved in the walk-a-thon in December 2005 at the urging of Pilipovich.

The event actually was begun in 1968 by Phi Theta Phi and managed to raise more than $1 million for the hospital over a 35-year span before the fraternity was disbanded by Thiel.

Pilipovich, a Phi alumnus, said other Phi Theta Phi Alumni Association members wanted to join the Icebreakers in the renewed walk and have been participating with the YSU group for the last four years.

He said 20 members of Icebreakers and 20 fraternity alumni took part in this year’s walk, marching from Thiel to Pittsburgh.

The group found some $100 bills in its collection cans this year, Pilipovich said, an indication that the spirit of giving to a worthy cause still lives.

Contributions can still be mailed to: Penguin Icebreakers, Youngstown State University, 1 University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555. Checks should be made payable to Children’s Hospital-Pittsburgh.

gwin@vindy.com