Remembering Ryan

It’s been five years since Ryan Klebowski was a student at Heidelberg. His sister, Cassie, a junior public relations major, is pouring her heart and soul into an effort to make sure her brother’s legacy lives on at Heidelberg and beyond.

During his senior year, Ryan was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He graduated in May 2002 and waged his battle with brain cancer for 16 months, before passing away in August 2003.

Each fall, the men of Nu Sigma Alpha along with Ryan’s family remember him with a memorial basketball game, with the proceeds from the game going to Caring Makes Cents, an organization Ryan created to buy Christmas gifts for pediatric cancer patients at the Cleveland Clinic, where he had been treated.

  Cassie is taking a page from Ryan’s “never give up” approach as she tries to revamp and expand the basketball game and events associated with it. In its fifth year this year, the game pits a team of faculty and alumni against a student team. But because all of the students who would have known Ryan have since graduated, interest has waned. If Cassie has anything to say, that’s about to change. She has worked hard to involve various students and campus and community organizations to give the game a momentum boost this year.

“One of my main goals was to get more than Greek students involved, because Ryan was so much more than Greek when he was here,” she said. “We want to stress who Ryan was and what the organization is about.”

This year’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, in Seiberling Gymnasium. Some new features this year are a shoot-out at halftime, an original song written and performed by a fraternity brother and raffles. T-shirts from the event will be available for $7. A short memorial ceremony, including the release of purple and gray balloons, will be held following the game.

Posted 10-26-2007