Spectators at Saturday’s Frogs for the Cure football game will see the provost in a kilt and the chancellor’s dance moves in a video shown during halftime, Frogs for the Cure chairwoman Ann Louden said.
The video will feature 1,400 people in 40 campus groups and organizations, 400 pink beach balls and one helicopter, Louden said. The video is centered around a song written by alumnus Tim Halperin and will aim to inspire the community in the fight against breast cancer.
Halperin said he received a list of encouraging words and personal stories from breast cancer survivors to inspire the lyrics for his song “We Fight Back,” which was featured in the video.
Louden said as a breast cancer survivor, the events had extra meaning for her. She fell in love with Halperin’s song because it provided a good dance tune for the video and would give the people struggling with breast cancer hope, she said.
“For me, it’s not just about [how] TCU is willing to collaborate [with] a nonprofit that is so important to so many in our community; for me, it’s very personal,” she said. “It’s about the fact that the university and my work for Frogs for the Cure gives me hope, personal hope, about not only… my personal situation but about the situations of so many people I know that are struggling with breast cancer.”
Louden said Frogs for the Cure is a series of annual university events, including a football game, designed to raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and increase breast cancer awareness.
After Halperin recorded the song, he said he decided to release it on iTunes and donate his portion of the proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For each download, 70 cents will be donated to the organization.
“When I decided to do the song, I really didn’t realize what it would turn into, and it’s just been so cool,” Halperin said. “And I think the coolest part has been the conversations I’ve had with survivors who have really taken the song to heart and loved the words and loved the fact that it’s a motivational and encouraging song that brings hope to people.”
With the song finished, Louden said filming for the video began in August with Halperin and campus resident assistants at Frog Fountain. The video also captured honors students in Rome, a university Physical Plant employee salsa dancing with a beach ball, KinderFrogs students, student athletes and more.
Once filming was nearly done, Louden said she turned the project over to junior film-television-digital media and Spanish double major Katie Norry to edit the footage. Norry said she spent around 20 hours a week editing the footage and creating the video.
“It was really fun to get to design everything, have creative control over it and see it become the emotional thing that I wanted it to be,” Norry said.
Louden said all of the video’s contributors, including Norry, Halperin, choreographers and videographers, volunteered their time.
Assistant professor of dance Suki John said she enjoyed working with the choreography in the video. She said she thought that it would get the community thinking about the importance of the fight against breast cancer and how many people are affected by the disease.
“Being able to help fight cancer a little bit with what I do was very gratifying,” John said.
Halperin said his part with Frogs for the Cure was not finished yet. He said he will sing the national anthem at Saturday’s football game against BYU, join breast cancer survivors on the field at halftime and perform a free concert in Frog Alley after the game.