Meghan Fitzsimmons is a junior sports, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) major who is also the events coordinator for our student radio station, WPPJ. 

Fitzsimmons worked on the big event Rock-A-Thon, which happens to be this week. 

“Rock-A-Thon is a live, 67-hour broadcasting event,” Fitzsimmons said.

The event is 67 hours long because of WPPJ being 670 a.m. This year, it is the station’s 40th annual Rock-A-Thon.

“We raise money and all of it goes to the Early Learning Institute,” Fitzsimmons said.

Planning Rock-A-Thon this year was a little different from years past because of the pandemic, and this made it a stressful experience for Fitzsimmons. 

“We really had to make two different plans on if we were staying on campus and if we were kicked off of campus,” she said. “So it was kind of double the work this year.”

The event has raffles and prizes that students can enter to win, which is something Fitzsimmons is looking forward to.

“Everybody always gets excited when they win,” she said. “We have a Halloween basket with a double feature of ‘It,’ and candy. [And] we have a Taylor Swift signed CD.”

Some of the other prizes include items from Hard Rock Café, face masks and more. Besides this, Fitzsimmons is also excited to hear all of the radio shows and what music they play during the event.

Her proudest accomplishment is getting the Mark Cuban Foundation to donate money to the event this year. Something she would like people to know about the event is that the money goes to the Early Learning Institute, which is why they push people to donate when you pass by.

“The money is going to the kiddos,” she said.

Rock-A-Thon starts Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. and goes until Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m.