By Vivian Le
After the big goal revelation, excitement is at a high point as Dance Marathon 23 prepares to raise $2,758,511.23 for pediatric cancer.
University of Iowa’s Dance Marathon raised its goal $300,000 from last year’s goal.
“Our executive team calculated exactly how many families Dance Marathon strives to support, and what each of those families needs to make their journey even the smallest bit easier, whether this be financially or emotionally,” said Dance Marathon public-relations head Ameena Chaudhry in an email to The Daily Iowan.
The fundraising money goes toward medical bills and also is dispersed for other costs, such as parking, fun activities, meals, and hats for the children.
“Everyone involved in Dance Marathon understands that the families’ fight is not a choice, so fundraising for us is not a choice,” she said. “Our goal gives us something more symbolic to work towards, and we use that to fuel our efforts.”
The goal’s increase creates more work for members to raise funds, but motivation comes from giving to the children.
“The reactions have been largely positive and hopeful. We are lucky to have members in the organization that use our goals as motivation, not as something to be afraid of,” Chaudhry said.
“It’s more inspirational than daunting,” said UI freshman and Dance Marathon member Nicole DeCoste. “We’ve talked to some of the kids who are actually in the program, and they have a really rough time. Just thinking about them will make our job seem less of a challenge.”
Last year, UI student Lauren Eddy led Group 21 as a morale captain. Her group raised the most money for Dance Marathon 22 by recruiting as many people as she could.
“It had a lot to do a lot with my dancers; they were just really engaged from the get-go. They wanted to do all they could for the kids,” she said. “All it took was exposing them to the families and what they go through every single day. And if they [families] can go through those fights, then we can raise some money to help them out and be there for them.”
This year, Eddy is the recruitment and retention head for the student organization. She joined Dance Marathon her freshman year at the UI and immediately fell in love with the organization. Since then, she said, she’s wanted as many people to experience it as she could.
Eddy said she advises members this year to strive and go beyond the required minimum of $500 in order to contribute to this year’s massive goal. She said she believes going to the events and meeting families will allow members to create personal connections and become motivated to push themselves.
Ways members have fundraised in the past have included asking for donations door-to-door or before football games, hosting community days, and sharing their Online Giving Page links to family members and friends.
Though the goal may seem large, Dance Marathon members will continue to do what they can to reach it.
“We will not stop fundraising until pediatric cancer is a thing of the past,” Chaudhry said.
