This past Friday San Diego State University hosted its first annual “Aztec Dance Marathon." Although this was the first year that SDSU hosted the event, multiple other schools have held successful Dance Marathons raising upwards of millions of dollars.
Emily Carper, a junior at San Diego State, was the one to facilitate the coming of Dance Marathon to SDSU. It started with a casual discussion in an Executive Board meeting for Greek Life Activities, and ended with 500 participants, 12 hours of non-stop dancing, and over $40,000 in donations raised for Rady's Children's Hospital. Most Dance Marathon events are planned in over a year's time, but Carper, and her team of some of the most dedicated leaders at SDSU, pulled off a successful and memorable event in less than three months.
Dance Marathon is built on the cornerstone of “dancing for the kids who can't." The beneficiary, Rady's Children's Hospital, located about 15 minutes away from SDSU's campus, never turns away a sick child or family based on their ability or inability to pay.
Dancers for the event were encouraged to raise at least $120 in donations to sponsor themselves, but many went above and beyond. Christina Conley, Greek Life Activities Board president and member of Dance Marathon Executive Board, raised a whopping $1,000 in two months.
Teams were composed of participants ranging from Associated Students members to students who lived in the same dorm. A majority of volunteers stayed — and stayed on their feet to add —for the entire 12 hours, from eight o'clock p.m. to eight o'clock a.m.
The event was kicked off with a “morale dance" performed by the Dance Marathon Executive Board. Throughout the night, volunteers were taught the routine piece by piece, and everyone joined in on performing during the closing ceremonies at 8 a.m. Every hour on the hour a performer ranging from the UCSD Dance Team to the SDSU Diamonds joined the volunteers at the event to perform — some even stayed to teach volunteers and kids a few dance moves. Additionally, every hour a patient that had benefitted from Rady's Children's Hospital's services came to speak to the volunteers about their unique experiences with the organization.
There were raffles, games, food, merchandise, stations to write notes to children still in the hospital, as well as children and their families at the event. I think it is safe to say that no one walked out at 8 a.m. the same person that they walked in as 8 p.m. the night before.
As a former patient of Rady's myself, participating in Dance Marathon was one of the most rewarding college experiences that I have had to date. A huge thank you to Emily Carper, her team, and everyone else that made Dance Marathon happen.
Check out photos on the twitter account @AztecDM_, Instagram @aztecdancemarathon, and Facebook page Aztec Dance Marathon.
