COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's University student-athletes recently completed a fundraising effort for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, raising nearly $40,000 for the charity. The 2017 campaign marked the third year for SJU football's involvement and the first with other varsity teams participating.  

The SJU football program launched a campaign to raise money for St. Jude's Children Research Hospital in 2015, after St. Jude's approached head coach Gary Fasching. 

"I made a big push to get our players involved in community service," Fasching said. "This was one way that they could give back to the community by helping these kids and their families." 

The team raised just over $14,000 their first year of the fundraiser and nearly $18,000 in 2016. 

The quick growth sparked all of the SJU athletic teams to get involved in 2017-18. The football team once again cleared $30,000, raising $31,766.28. Additionally, the baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, hockey, swimming and diving, tennis and wrestling teams combined to raise $8,065, bringing the total funds raised by SJU athletes during the school year to $39,831.28.

This year's donations will cover a wide variety of expenses for families at St. Jude's. The total is enough to cover a major surgery ($25,000), grocery gift cards for two years for one family ($10,000), help Child Life host the annual Teen Formal ($3,500), one hour of physical therapy ($550), two days of oxygen for a patient ($750) and three new toys for hospital play areas and housing facilities. 

Student-athletes started their fundraising efforts by sending, at minimum, 10 emails to family and friends, and incorporated social media. SJU's student-athletes sent 4,548 emails in 2017. 

Sophomore wrestlers Noah Becker (Browerville, Minn.) and Andrew Smith (Amery, Wis.) were the top individual fundraisers (outside of the football team), raising $700 and $475, respectively. The two will be rewarded with a trip to the St. Jude Collegiate Leadership Seminar July 25-27 at the hospital in Memphis, Tenn. 

Former defensive lineman Andy Kinnan '17 attended the seminar in 2016, while junior wide receiver Tyler Hartigan (Rosemount, Minn.), junior running back Derek McLaughlin (Andover, Minn.) and junior offensive lineman Wyatt Russek (Delano, Minn.) visited the hospital last summer. 

Junior tight end Tommy Auger (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) was football's leading fundraiser at $1,260.