Name: Ethan Kenney
Year: Senior
Major: Exercise science/biology
Hometown: Columbia

What fundraising venture were you involved in last month? I ran 52 consecutive miles on November 16 to raise money for the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA). I recently became a third-party affiliate with the S.C. Chapter for LFA. I lost my mother to lupus last year, and this run was something I put together myself to help honor her and raise money for a cure.

Why did you pick a run? I'm a member of Sigma Nu, and that night my brothers did the Gameball Run--that's our fraternity's philanthropy. It raises money for multiple sclerosis research. Every year just before the Carolina-Clemson game, the Clemson Sigma Nus run the football from Clemson to a halfway point, and then we pick it up and take it the other half. Or we start the run from here and take it halfway up there, and then they take it on to Clemson. Depends on where the game is being held that year. I thought that while they were doing that, I'd run to raise money for lupus research. I started at 4 a.m. on November 16 and finished the next afternoon, just in time for the game.

How did you train? There's no real way to train for something like this. I've been a runner for a long time--I was very competitive at A.C. Flora High School and came close to running track for Carolina. The longest training run I did for the fundraiser was about 30 miles. Once a week I'd go on a long run at Sesquicentennial Park. But basically I just tried to gut out the 52 miles. That's about all you can do.

How much did you raise? About $3,000 so far. Some people pledged per mile and some made direct donations.

Do you plan to make this an annual event? A reporter from The Gamecock asked me the same thing, but before that I hadn't thought about it. I'm not sure. I'm going to see how this goes. Fifty-two miles is a lot. And this time next year I hope to be in med school and I don't know if I'll have time to run. In the future, I do hope to put together some type of annual fundraiser for lupus, but I don't know what it's going to be.

Is your plan to go to medical school related to your mother's illness? I knew I wanted to go into something healthcare related before I came to college. Taking care of and then losing my mother solidified my plans to go to med school. Right now I'm leaning toward orthopaedic surgery.

11/07