Irvine : UCI Senior Leads Drive for Funds to Fight MS

Bob Eakin, a senior majoring in political science at UC Irvine, said he didn’t know much about multiple sclerosis before last fall.

“I was asked to head the fund drive here on campus,” said Eakin, 21, of San Francisco. “I’d been doing fund raising for my fraternity, so I guess they thought I knew a lot about that. But I didn’t know much about multiple sclerosis.

“I’ve been to training seminars since then, and now I know that multiple sclerosis is a pretty intense disease. For no apparent reason, it strikes people between the ages of 18 and 35--young people in the prime of life. It’s a major neurological disease that affects the myelin tissues and causes loss of some motor skills. There’s no cure yet, but a lot of positive research is going on.”

Under Eakin’s leadership, UCI has raised about $6,000 for its MS drive. Now Eakin hopes to raise considerably more for the fund drive with a “Rock Alike Giant Dance and Lip Synch Extravaganza” to be held March 1 from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Tickets, available through Ticketron, cost $3 in advance and $5 at the door. “The lip synch contestants are supposed to raise money, and the contestants with the most money raised for multiple sclerosis will win and go on to the regional contests,” Eakin said.

Eakin has secured some corporate sponsors for the event, but he said the MS fund drive is seeking more to help underwrite the costs.

“We’d like to raise $15,000 from the student body and then an additional $15,000 from the community,” he said. “Sixty percent of the money goes for national research and 40% goes to the Orange County multiple sclerosis chapter for use here, such as with outpatients.”