On Valentine's Day, David Swiderski received some bad news. His friend Brooke told him she had been diagnosed with leukemia.

Swiderski (senior-accounting) has big plans for the fall semester besides graduating from Penn State Harrisburg in December. As part of a community service project for his Sociology 444 (Complex Organizations) class, Swiderski will be working to raise $25,000 for leukemia research at the Hershey Medical Center.

"The sociology class is taught by Ken Cunningham, who requires a community service project of at least 16 hours for the semester," he said. "Brooke was the one who suggested that I do something for leukemia."

Brooke is a student at William Paterson University, in Wayne, N.J. Swiderski did not disclose her last name due to issues of confidentiality.

He said he has recently been busy planning and organizing upcoming fund-raising events.

"I knew I wouldn't be able to do it alone, so I am getting together a team of about 10 people, including friends and old professors of mine," he said.

He is also receiving help from local businesses, such as Café 210 West, 210 W. College Ave., which will be holding several benefit concerts in the fall.

"Café 210 West has been instrumental in helping," he said. "I'm friends with Hal [McCullough], the owner. It was actually his idea to help out with the concerts."

McCullough said he was glad to offer help to Swiderski, who has been a loyal Café customer for the past few years.

"He came to me and asked for help, and I'm more than happy to," he said.

McCullough added they will try to schedule two or three bands to play a night for free, and all profits made from the cover charge at the door will go to Swiderski's fund-raising efforts.

In the meantime, Swiderski said, he still has lots of work to do. To do any fund raising through Penn State, he must do paperwork and get a student organization to sponsor him. He said he would probably ask Coaches vs. Cancer, a student group that raises money for cancer research through the American Cancer Society.

In addition he is going back to Harrisburg in a couple of weeks to meet with some of his former marketing professors to discuss promotion and fund-raising ideas.

Swiderski said he will also be touring part of the Hershey Medical Center with an oncologist, David Claxton. Claxton is Swiderski's main contact at the medical center regarding the fund-raising project.

"Some of the research projects going on are very fundamental," Claxton said. "[Researchers] are interested in studying molecules that may regulate the cell growth involved in leukemia and in investigating treatments for patients. The money is needed to pay for data collection, clinical personnel, etc."

Swiderski said his plan is to give a check for $25,000 directly to Claxton.

"When you donate money to an organization like the American Cancer Society, administrative costs are deducted and not all the money goes to research," he said. "I want to make sure the money goes to research to fix the problem."

"I want to do something each year," he said. "My sociology class is only one semester, but cancer will still be around, so I want to do something permanent."