Collaborative efforts between athletic rivals can still be seen off-field. Rice University and the University of Houston will join hands Sunday from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Houston Polo Club for the Horses and Hats Benefit, hosted by the Snowdrop Foundation in partnership with the Houston Polo Club.
“It is entirely indescribable to label how important the events of Horses and Hats week are to Snowdrop Foundation,” said Kevin Kline, founder and president of the Snowdrop Foundation.
Proceeds will be used to provide college scholarships for childhood cancer patients and survivors and to donate research money to the Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
The Snowdrop Foundation, founded by Kline and his wife Trish, who serves as executive director, has been a recognized pediatric cancer organization since 2006.
“Every single event is important. However, since this is a first event of its type for us … we’ll be reaching a whole new audience. It’s vital that we make these events the best that they can be,” Kline said.
The foundation is named after the snowdrop flower, known as the first flower to bloom in the spring even if snow is still on the ground.
“If a more perfect symbol than the snowdrop exists, exemplifying the strength of a child-fighting cancer, I haven’t been introduced to it,” Kline said.
The partnership came on behalf of Rice University political science senior Ameer Jumabhoy, who was motivated by his passion for polo and cancer research after his father and aunt were diagnosed in the early stages of cancer in 2010.
“We’ve taken a lot of the community. We’ve tapped into people who have helped us. We’ve tapped into people who have given us many platforms to get our own names out,” Jumabhoy said.
“They understand, ‘Look, these are college students at the end of the day. They are trying to do something different; they are trying to do something good. Let’s give them our support.’ And I think this is just one of the ways that we can say thank you to all of the people that have helped us over the last one to three years, even.”
The Horses and Hats Benefit is a four-goal, charity-sporting exhibition and is the last event in a series of three fundraisers. Before the polo event, there will be a cocktail party sponsored by hotel restaurant and management senior Dominique McGhee and sociology senior Rajpriya Venkatarajan.
“We are having a cocktail mixer for the Snowdrop Foundation, their visitors, their donators, our close family and friends. We are hoping to get people excited about the polo match on Sunday,” McGhee said.
“Everything raised Thursday and Saturday goes directly to Snowdrop Foundation. We are not profiting at all. It is all going to charity.”
There will also be a silent auction at the cocktail party, McGhee said.
“(Jumabhoy and I) became friends about a year ago. He told us about this project he was doing, and we thought it was a great idea to support him as a friend and as another young person from another university. We want to do our part,” McGhee said. “We are different universities in the city just trying to do a good thing.”
“I think it’s also a good thing to point out that, although (Rice) may be considered our rival school, great relationships can still be built between the two universities, and we are a great example of that,” McGhee said in an email.
For more information about these events, please visit www.snowdropfoundation.org/custompage.asp?id=19.
Additional reporting by Julie Heffler.
