In the Spotlight

Nursing students from Mount St. Mary's College formed a team that brought in $6,000 during this year's "CHOC Walk in the Park" at Disneyland, an annual fundraiser for Children's Hospital of Orange County.

Nov. 20, 2012 — For the past five years, Mount St. Mary’s College students in the Alpha Tau Delta nursing fraternity have participated in the annual CHOC Walk in the Park, a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital of Orange County held at Disneyland® Resort. This year, the Mount’s students teamed up with the California Nursing Students’ Association to form an 87-member fundraising team.

The team name: The Alpha Tau Delta Nursing Mouseketeers. The team’s goal: $5,000. By the time the CHOC Walk took place last month, the team had exceeded its goal by $1,000.

“Our goal was to recruit as many members as possible in order to raise as much money as we possibly could,” says Karissa Trice ’13, president of Mount St. Mary’s Alpha Tau Delta chapter. “Each member took it upon themselves to raise money, whether it was going door to door asking for donations, or asking family and friends for support.”

The early-morning stroll wound through several Disneyland® parks, including California Adventures® and Downtown Disney®. Together, more than 14,000 walkers took part in this year’s event, raising more than $1.6 million for CHOC Children’s.

“For our Mount participants, this was the most successful fundraising effort yet,” says Kathy Kelly, assistant professor in the College’s Baccalaureate Nursing program. “There is a spirit of community service that runs deep within our nursing student community that reflects the kind of professionalism that we hope all our students obtain in their education at the Mount.”

Money raised from 2012 CHOC Walk will support the Orange County hospital’s current expansion. After more than four decades of sharing services with an adult hospital, CHOC Children’s new patient tower under construction will create a freestanding children’s hospital with its own pediatric surgical suites, emergency department, and radiology and pathology departments.

This year marked the 22nd anniversary of the CHOC Walk. Some Mount participants are already planning how to generate more College support for the 2013 event.  

“For next year, we hope to surpass this year’s number of members and raise even more money,” Trice says. “And we’d love to have even more of the Mount community to participate, and not just limit this to nursing students. This is something everyone should experience because it is for such a great cause.”