Yoko and I took off for Tallahassee on Valentine’s Day weekend to see our daughter Jessica at Florida State. Jessie is deeply involved with Dance Marathon, which is a 40 hour danceathon to raise money for The Children’s Miracle Network (CMN). Last year FSU’s Dance Marathon donated over $380,000 in proceeds to Shands Children Hospital in Gainesville, a CMN supported facility.
Jessie has volunteered to help with the FSU event for the past three years. She serves on the Dance Marathon organizing committee and is responsible for media production, including creating and editing all the music, video and still photography used prior to, during and after the event. Dance Marathon has become the centerpiece of her college career. In fact, because of Dance Marathon, Jessie has decided to pursue event management as a career.
My alma mater, Penn State, is the school that came up with the idea of a Dance Marathon fundraiser. It was started in 1973 by the Penn State’s Inter-fraternity Council. That year just $2000 was raised by 39 couples dancing for 30 hours straight. Penn State donated the money it raised to the Butler County Association of Retarded Citizens.
In 1977, Dance Marathon was changed to a 48-hour event and became an annual benefit for the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center. In 1990, Indiana University began their own Dance Marathon to raise funds for the Ryan White Infectious Disease Center at Riley Hospital for Children.
In 1995, the Children’s Miracle Network developed a fundraising program inspired by these early dance marathons. The first year of the program, four schools participated and raised a total of $142,000. Six more schools, including FSU, were added to the program the following year, raising $300,000. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, across the nation, over 80 schools hold Dance Marathons to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. The FSU Dance Marathon alone has raised $2.2 million since 1996. Over $40 million has been raised since 1996. What a great story!
Yoko and I decided this year would be a good time to check out what Jessie has been up to all this time, so we made plans to go up on Valentine’s Day weekend to witness the event for ourselves. After that we were going to continue on to Blue Ridge, Georgia for a romantic weekend and look for a summer cabin.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when we showed up at the Leon Civic Center to witness the opening of Dance Marathon. Throbbing music with a heavy drumbeat was blaring as we made our way into the heavily decorated hall where all the dancing was about to begin. In years gone by the FSU marathon was one session that continued for 36 hours straight. This year to increase participation (and the amount of money raised) the kids decided to do two sessions of 20 hours each with a three hour break in between. (600 kids participate in each session.) We got there just at the kids were entering the hall for the second session.
The excitement in the hall was tangible as the dancers got ready to stand and dance for 20 hours straight. The kickoff started with a 34 minute music video countdown, largely edited by my daughter. Then at exactly 7 PM the marathon officially begins. The organizing committee starts things off with a high energy nine minute line dance that all 1200 dancers will learn before the end of the night. (The line dance happens at the top of each hour for the entire 20 hours.
You could feel the love of the student dancers literally giving of themselves on Valentine’s Day. The marathon, which ended at 3 PM on Sunday raised over $ 450,000. Yoko and I could not be more proud of the part Jessie played.
Jessie has volunteered to help with the FSU event for the past three years. She serves on the Dance Marathon organizing committee and is responsible for media production, including creating and editing all the music, video and still photography used prior to, during and after the event. Dance Marathon has become the centerpiece of her college career. In fact, because of Dance Marathon, Jessie has decided to pursue event management as a career.
My alma mater, Penn State, is the school that came up with the idea of a Dance Marathon fundraiser. It was started in 1973 by the Penn State’s Inter-fraternity Council. That year just $2000 was raised by 39 couples dancing for 30 hours straight. Penn State donated the money it raised to the Butler County Association of Retarded Citizens.
In 1977, Dance Marathon was changed to a 48-hour event and became an annual benefit for the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center. In 1990, Indiana University began their own Dance Marathon to raise funds for the Ryan White Infectious Disease Center at Riley Hospital for Children.
In 1995, the Children’s Miracle Network developed a fundraising program inspired by these early dance marathons. The first year of the program, four schools participated and raised a total of $142,000. Six more schools, including FSU, were added to the program the following year, raising $300,000. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, across the nation, over 80 schools hold Dance Marathons to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. The FSU Dance Marathon alone has raised $2.2 million since 1996. Over $40 million has been raised since 1996. What a great story!
Yoko and I decided this year would be a good time to check out what Jessie has been up to all this time, so we made plans to go up on Valentine’s Day weekend to witness the event for ourselves. After that we were going to continue on to Blue Ridge, Georgia for a romantic weekend and look for a summer cabin.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when we showed up at the Leon Civic Center to witness the opening of Dance Marathon. Throbbing music with a heavy drumbeat was blaring as we made our way into the heavily decorated hall where all the dancing was about to begin. In years gone by the FSU marathon was one session that continued for 36 hours straight. This year to increase participation (and the amount of money raised) the kids decided to do two sessions of 20 hours each with a three hour break in between. (600 kids participate in each session.) We got there just at the kids were entering the hall for the second session.
The excitement in the hall was tangible as the dancers got ready to stand and dance for 20 hours straight. The kickoff started with a 34 minute music video countdown, largely edited by my daughter. Then at exactly 7 PM the marathon officially begins. The organizing committee starts things off with a high energy nine minute line dance that all 1200 dancers will learn before the end of the night. (The line dance happens at the top of each hour for the entire 20 hours.
You could feel the love of the student dancers literally giving of themselves on Valentine’s Day. The marathon, which ended at 3 PM on Sunday raised over $ 450,000. Yoko and I could not be more proud of the part Jessie played.
1 comment:
Absolutely amazing! All your kids are drivers!
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