Donated Dates Raise Money For Cancer

Her name is Brogan A. Berry ’12, and people always say she looks like a squirrel, frolicking in the yard, nibbling on nuts, and stowing things away for winter. She knows how to use a Bumpit like Snooki, will laugh at the worst of your jokes, and went for the price of $100 last Thursday at Tommy Doyle’s.

The semi-annual date auction, put on by the Harvard Cancer Society, revealed such alluring facts about its contestants. Everything from genuine romantic desire to squirrel-related curiosities led to charitable ends, with the event bringing in just short of $1,500 in less than two hours. And with bombshells the likes of Jackie M. Alemany ’11 (“My stock is always rising!”) and Jeremy S. Lin ’10 (“People always say I look like every other Asian guy”), 10 of the 12 auctionees were priced in the triple digits. David F. Boswell ’10, who said on his registration sheet that he liked “auctioning off his body for noble causes” in his free time, went for $0, as he was unfortunately not present at the auction.

Although the group’s largest fundraiser each year is Relay for Life, Harvard Cancer Society president Kevin W. Chi ’10 noted the importance of connecting to undergraduates in different ways. “It’s hard to engage college students by saying that there’s a lecture series given by researchers,” said Chi. “You have to work with your audience and catch their attention with something a little more fun. That opens doors for talking about what we really do and what this money is going towards.”

Emily A. Hughes ’11, who brought in the top bid at $202, and also bid on a few of her friends, echoed Chi’s sentiments. “It’s a cause that really hits close to home, and it’s a fun twist on a fundraiser,” she said. “There’s a standard set of ways to raise money, and this is kind of a curveball that’s great to do once in a while.”

Leaving the event with charitable feelings high and romantic prospects even higher, the successful bidders had a lot to look forward to. Lin, one of the star auctionees of the show who went for a second-lowest $69, gave a tantalizing glimpse of what lay in store for that romantic dinner: “I paid for a girl’s meal at Qdoba once. We had a two-for-one coupon.”