HuskyTHON, a student-run organization at the University of Connecticut that fundraises for Connecticut Children’s Hospital, is unveiling its 2027 campaign titled “Turn the Page.”
The campaign recognizes the organization’s members, along with the patients and families at Connecticut Children’s. It celebrates individuals’ stories that lead them to fight as one community against childhood illness.
“I really wanted to celebrate all the differences in our stories,” HuskyTHON Vice President of Communications Hannah Rodriguez said. “Regardless of what brought you here to HuskyTHON, our stories are on the same page right now because we’re all here and doing this together.”
Sophie Jones, the director of marketing strategy for HuskyTHON, reflected more on the patients and families at Connecticut Children’s.
“They don’t always know what each week, month or year is going to look like,” she said. “It’s important to celebrate them along the way and make them feel like the fight they’re putting up is worth recognizing.”
“Turn the Page” has different meanings depending on someone’s story, HuskyTHON Creative Director Karlisse Wills said. For members, it can represent their years of involvement in the organization or the increasing support in the community. For patients, it could represent moving forward, finishing a hard chapter and blossoming into a new one with hope, she said.
Taedra Tsecaris, the director of media for HuskyTHON, gave her take on what the campaign means.
“It kind of represents the choice to push past challenges and continue moving forward, even when it seems impossible,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean it ends childhood illness overnight, but it celebrates the small steps and milestones that bring us closer to our end goal.”
Although previous campaigns were focused on rallying students and pushing for stronger goals, “Turn the Page” reflects what the organization has done and where it has been, Rodriguez said. The purpose is to encourage people to see what HuskyTHON can do when people come together, she said.
Wills said this campaign is different from the rest because it directly connects to the children they’re fundraising for. Stories can be a temporary escape for patients and bring people together as one, she said. Stories can also become memories for members, patients and families, which is one of the goals HuskyTHON seeks to achieve with this campaign, Wills said.
“This year isn’t just a theme we put on a shirt,” she said. “It’s something our patients and members actually live and that makes it feel personal in a way past campaigns haven’t.”
The campaign originally was brought up in both Rodriguez’s and Will’s interviews for their roles. They both had a similar idea of what the campaign could be, and when it was mentioned in the first communications meeting, it was agreed upon almost instantly. Wills said the team has been working on the campaign for six months.
“It was kind of fate because I hadn’t even told them that I used that in my interview,” Rodriguez said. “We decided on the slogan right then and there and moved into the nitty gritty after that.”
HuskyTHON will have a booth set up on Fairfield Way today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where students can learn more about the campaign and share their own HuskyTHON stories.