Wake Forest University’s annual Hit the Bricks fundraiser has set another record, drawing 2,406 runners and walkers and raising nearly $407,000 for cancer research and patient care. 1 event surpassed the previous year’s fundraising and participation records, according to Wake Forest News, while the university’s Hit the Bricks website and Office of Civic and Community Engagement provide additional details about the event’s long-running role in supporting the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. The Oct. Held on the Wake Forest campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Hit the Bricks brings students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the wider community together for a day-long relay around the university’s Quad. Participants take turns running or walking laps, with teams raising money throughout the event.
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s 2025 impact report records the previous fundraiser at $348,719, confirming the event’s record-setting performance that year. With the 2026 fundraiser included, Hit the Bricks has now raised more than $2.1 million over its 23-year history, according to Wake Forest. Hit the Bricks was established in 2003 as a student-led philanthropic event. It is one of several Wake Forest initiatives supporting the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, which was established by students in 1980 in memory of Brian Piccolo, the former Wake Forest football player and Chicago Bears running back. In a single day, thousands of people took part in the 2026 event, helping push the fundraiser’s cumulative total beyond $2.1 million. The university says its annual student-led events, including Hit the Bricks, Wake ’N Shake and Pump Up for Piccolo, have collectively raised more than $6.5 million for cancer research and related programmes.
The university says the total remains preliminary as fundraising connected to this year’s event continues to be finalized. The latest figures mark another step in that progression. Hit the Bricks is also part of a broader philanthropic programme at Wake Forest dedicated to the Piccolo fund. For Wake Forest, the appeal of Hit the Bricks lies in its unusual combination of competition, fundraising and remembrance. What began as a student initiative more than two decades ago has evolved into one of the university’s largest recurring community fundraisers, with each year’s laps adding to a much larger effort to support cancer research and patient care. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.