Dance Marathon
86,400 seconds. 1,440 minutes. 24 hours.
Annually, in this equivalent amount of time, students at USC participate in Dance Marathon. The event is not just any dance party. Students dance to raise money for the Palmetto Health Richland Children’s Hospital. The event normally has approximately 850 registered participants, and at one time, there could be anywhere from 200 to 600 people dancing for the cause.
“It’s pretty much a huge huge party where people are learning to dance,” said Ryan Wade, third-year psychology student and overall director of Dance Marathon.
“I think that’s what makes it so much fun for everybody. It’s entertaining and fun to do,” Wade said.
This year, Dance Marathon will be held from 7 p.m. on Feb. 22 until 7 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. Participants will be separated into morale groups, each with its own theme. Themes include categories such as Mardi Gras, Big Red and The Wizard of Oz. Other activities include watching live bands, eating three meals and snacks, playing games, participating in theme hours, competing in spirit competitions and learning many segments of a dance. The main dance is made up of 25 to 30 of the year’s most popular songs, and each group’s morale captains are the designated choreographers.
“I just really like learning the dances in general and that’s probably the funnest part, just the dancing itself. You’re goofing off, you’re having fun with your friends, you’re making fun of each other, you’re trying to do these dances, and I can’t dance at all so it’s just ridiculous,” said Michelle Shorter, fourth-year public relations student and Dance Marathon media relations director.
“Last year I was on morale and we got to teach the dances and that was amazing. You were on stage and that was complete fun,” Shorter said.
Many of USC’s student organizations sign up for Dance Marathon and form teams in hopes of raising money and winning the Miracle Cup. The Miracle Cup is given to the team who achieves the most points by attending meetings, going to events, having members on the morale and submitting a banner. The organizations involved in making teams vary from sororities and fraternities to clubs and residence halls.
“We are putting a team together. So far we have over 30 people interested and are going to have penny wars to raise money,” said Monica Ehrsam, first-year education student and Sims Hall president.
In addition to the other activities, children and parents involved with the hospital are invited to attend and share stories.
“At the event several of the Miracle Children stopped by and expressed their gratitude for the longs hours we were putting in on their behalf,” said Natasha Hopkins, third-year public relations student and Dance Marathon internal director.
Although hearing it from adults is important, hearing the children thank them is invaluable, Hopkins said.
Children in the hospital suffer from mild to critical conditions, ranging from bruises to cancer.
“I’m actually going into medicine, and when you volunteer at the hospital and see, you know the things that families are going through and it really helps to know that you’re making a difference as a college student,” Wade said.
“You don’t have to be a professional to give back to people through a health care standpoint and I think that’s my main motivation for doing Dance Marathon,” Wade said.
In hopes of making life easier for the children, Dance Marathon raised $103,000 last year. Since the event started in 1998, student dancers have raised a total of $550,000 toward the Children’s Hospital. With the money, the hospital has gained new equipment such as EKG machines and beds. The funds also went toward families who were generally unable to afford health care.
There’s a room in the children’s hospital where all the equipment was purchased by Dance marathon contributions, Wade said.
This year’s funds are going toward the renovation of a new Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital. According to Wade, the hospital will be the only freestanding children’s hospital in the state. The hospital is planned to open during the summer. Dance Marathon’s 2008 goal is to donate at least $125,000 to the new hospital.
“The number of children the hospital will service is astronomical. The current children's hospital has been serving the community as best as it could with the location it had. The new hospital will make your hopefully short stay as comfortable for the patient and the family,” Hopkins said.
Despite all of the money that Dance Marathon raises, the event does not have to worry about funding itself whatsoever. Dance Marathon’s sponsorship chairs solicit business all year round. They also receive gifts to go toward their budget. The gifts include donations such as $7,500 in advertising provided by The Daily Gamecock. Finally, each Dance Marathon participant is encouraged to raise $150 for the event. There is a variety of ways for students to raise the money.
Participants can submit a list of addresses for the letter writing campaign and the Dance Marathon leaders mail out letters to those family and friends, Shorter said.
“Dancers are also able to take sponsorships from companies or their parents’ companies and we do a lot of little things to raise money too. You can sell these balloons for $2 and you can sell 10 of them so that’s $20 towards your goal,” Shorter said.
Together, the Dance Marathon executive board and their sponsors work hard throughout the year to plan the event.
“There’s no gray area from when we stop the event to when we start planning. Once the event’s over, we start planning for the next year immediately,” Wade said.
In addition to the main night, Dance Marathon hosts several other events throughout the year. These events include increasing awareness and raising money during Blitz Week in November, receiving a percentage of a night’s profit at the Village Idiot, hosting a poker tournament at The Wild Hare and participating in the annual Date Auction as well as the Palmetto Miracle 5K Run.
“I have been involved in several organizations since I came to USC, but none have proved to have such a warm-fuzzy feeling as Dance Marathon. Being college students we have a tendency to get caught in a college bubble; we become slightly unaware of situations troubling the community,” Hopkins said.
The Palmetto Miracle Run, which will be held on Feb.2, is located on campus. It is the final Dance Marathon sponsored event before the actual night of Dance Marathon.
“Basically, we’re just trying to get the community involved; that’s our big community project,” Shorter said.
The only thing Shorter regrets about the event is that she didn’t do it freshman year.
“It has truly been the most influential event in my college career,” she said.
