Throughout the last 24-hours stacks of Dance Marathon merchandise have slowly diminished to mere piles of limited sizes.
“The sales have been insane. We have six boxes left of merchandise and we started out with 80 boxes,” said Merchandise Chair Katie Kratt. “The sales are higher than they’ve ever been before.”
A variety of merchandise is sold in various colors. However, the most prominent color throughout the merchandise is lime green.
“I purchased a lot of lime because I know I’ll be continuing with Dance Marathon in the future,” said Dancer Olivia Alderks.
All of the revenue that is being made from the sales goes back to the battle against pediatric cancer.
“100 percent of the revenue goes straight to the cause. We make sure to budget the merchandise into the overall budget total so all the profit can go to the cause,” Kratt said. “It means the world to me that we can do that.”
Different vendors around Iowa City help make the sales of the merchandise possible.
“We go through a few different local vendors. We really tried to keep it totally local this year and did a pretty good job of doing that,” Kratt said.
Underground Printing in Iowa City handled the Big Event shirts and most of the Big Event merchandise and Bankers Advertising, also located in Iowa City, handled a variety of items from socks to backpacks.
“It’s crazy how excited people are about buying things to represent the Dance Marathon organization,” said Creative Committee Member Audrey Wood. “We now have people just coming up and asking us what’s left because they know how fast everything has gone, which is really exciting.”
Wood has personally helped sell the merchandise to eager buyers throughout the 24-hours.
“It is a really tangible thing to see a piece of merchandise sold for a specific price and know that what we are making through that sale is going to the cause,” Wood said.
Seeing Dance Marathon merchandise around campus is an inspiring sight for many of Dance Marathon’s participants.
“I love the message that wearing the merchandise carries. It’s inspiring and hopeful to walk around campus and see tons of people wearing it,” Wood said. “I am always seeing someone wearing something Dance Marathon related. It really creates a collective community on campus.”