DATE: April 16, 2008

CONTACT: Candy Bianco, CBianco@bentley.edu
(508) 369-9533

WRITER: Angela Nixon, (864) 656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu

Comedian Theo Von to perform benefit show at Clemson

Proceeds will go to Whitney Krozier Memorial Fund

CLEMSON – Stand-up comedian Theo Von will perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, in Tillman Hall to raise money for the Whitney Krozier Memorial Fund at Clemson University. The fund benefits Clemson’s Student Disability Services office.

Whitney Krozier, a native of North Attleboro, Mass., was a senior majoring in psychology at Clemson when she died in June 2007. Krozier was a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 3. She lived through the cancer, but the rigorous chemotherapy treatments left her to battle numerous other health problems throughout her life, including lupus, epilepsy, scoliosis and fibromylalgia.

Krozier’s mother, Candy Bianco, said her daughter never let her health problems stop her from living her life or striving to reach her goals.

“She never gave up,” Bianco said. “She always tried her best and she never used her illnesses as an excuse. Many of her professors had no clue that she was sick because she didn’t whine and cry about it. She just got her work done in advance so if she had to take a sick day she could still turn it in on time.”

Krozier was set to graduate from Clemson in August 2007. She was engaged to Jason Rowzee, also a Clemson student, and she had a job lined up with the Department of Social Services in Georgia, where she would have worked with children.

“She was so proud to be at Clemson,” her mother said. “Clemson was so good to her, and she was so happy to be a part of the student population there.”

Bianco established the fund in her daughter’s memory because she wanted to help students at Clemson who face the same challenges Krozier faced. The money will be used to establish two new programs for Student Disability Services: support groups for disabled students and an educational seminar for faculty to help them better understand students with health challenges and disabilities.

Arlene Stewart, director of Student Disability Services, described Krozier as “very bright, very persistent and creative.” She said both of the programs the fund will help develop are much needed at Clemson.

“This will enable us to establish a real peer group of students with disabilities, a place where they can go to find support as well as give support to one another,” Stewart said. “The seminar is designed to help faculty because many of them don’t have a lot of experience with disabled students. Students’ needs are so varied, it’s a different story with each student.”

Tickets to the show are $10. Theo Von rose to fame on MTV’s “Road Rules,” and in 2006, he competed on season four of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” where he won the title of “Last Comic Downloaded.” Most recently, he was a judge on the ABC Family show “America’s Prom Queen.”

The show also will feature acts from comedians Jed Fearon, Scott Williams and Landry, as well as a performance from Clemson’s own comedy improv student group, Mock Turtle Soup. The show is co-sponsored by Relay for Life, Tigers Who Care and CLEMSONLiVE.

For tickets, contact kroziercomedyevent@gmail.com or go to the Student Disability Services office in the bottom level of Redfern Health Center.

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