KU News Release

2007 Campanile Award winner uses music to support cancer awareness

Kristopher Kennedy

LAWRENCE — Kristopher Dacer Kennedy, a University of Kansas senior from Overland Park who has used music to raise funds and awareness for cancer research, is the 2007 Campanile Award recipient.

The Class of 2000 established the Campanile Award, which is presented annually to a senior graduating in May. The recipient must display remarkable leadership, strength of character and respect for the university.

Kennedy will graduate Sunday, May 20, with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and economics. He is the son of Keith and Fe Kennedy, who recently moved from Overland Park to Wilbraham, Mass. He is a Blue Valley North High School graduate. In June, Kennedy will begin work as a product planner in the marketing division of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Mo.

Kennedy and his band, Crux Against Cancer, raised more than $2,200 for the American Cancer Society with two concerts in Lawrence. Through KU’s new Colleges Against Cancer chapter, he has encouraged students in the Lawrence community to make a difference in the lives of people facing cancer.

Cancer moved into his family in November 2005 when Kennedy’s younger brother was diagnosed with stage four lymphoblastic lymphoma, a rare form of cancer that attacks lymph glands. His brother is now a KU sophomore, in remission and enjoys anonymity, but the diagnosis and uncertainty shook the family’s core.

As his little brother was undergoing treatment in Massachusetts, Kennedy tried to cope with finals, two jobs and feeling helpless. He worked at Capitol Federal Savings in customer service and as a dance instructor in Olathe, teaching hip-hop to youngsters.

As he talked to friends, classmates and coworkers, Kennedy learned how cancer had touched the lives of others. Only a few months before his brother’s diagnosis, Kennedy had formed a band with two friends, one of whom Kennedy would learn had lost his mom to breast cancer in 2000.

Hearing about his friends’ experiences prompted Kennedy to “do the research and find out … the cancer numbers are crazy.” According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1.4 million people in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer this year and more than half a million will die from cancer this year. One in two males and one in three females will develop cancer at some point in time in their life.

“That’s just crazy to me. We had to do something about it. So we decided to do what we knew best: organize a concert.”

The concerts were in April 2006 and 2007. More than 300 people attended the second Crux Against Cancer concert April 13 at the Granada in downtown Lawrence. The band also helped raise money to build a school in Uganda and played at the Relay for Life event in KU’s Memorial Stadium. The group has released two albums.

Kennedy is a KU Meritorious Scholar and also received a Jordan Haines Scholarship and a Grant Gullion Memorial Scholarship. His campus activities include the KU Marketing Club, KU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, KU Ad Club, the Black Student Union and the Unity hip-hop dance troupe.

KU’s Board of Class Officers selects the recipient of the Campanile Award based on a short essay on his or her contributions to KU and the Lawrence community and an interview with the senior class officers.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.