Last weekend at Indiana University Bloomington something incredible happened. This thing was Indiana University Dance Marathon - or IUDM for short. IUDM is the second largest student run organization, and while I was not able to attend the event, I was utterly amazed by the wonderful things that it accomplished, and I wanted to share my awe and this incredible event with all of you guys too.

Riley Children's Hospital is known for its life saving procedures that save so many kids every day, and the best part is that no child is turned away or denied treatment, regardless of their financial situation. However, this means that the hospital needs a lot of help and support from the outside to be able to fund procedures for kids whose families cannot afford them, and for 36 hours IUDMers did just this.

For the 26th year and for 36 hours students from all over campus came together and stood for either 12, 24 or 36 straight hours in order to raise money for these children. They danced with, played with and listened to the stories of so many kids as they went through, recovered from and were triumphant over their struggles and illnesses.

But the 36 hour marathon was not all that Indiana University students put into this cause. The IUDM volunteers devoted months of their time before the marathon to raising money for these kids and Riley Children's hospital. During the months before the 36 hour marathon they toured Riley hospital, heard the stories of Riley kids, stood on and off campus with cans for donations and dedicated a whole day called the Day of Hope to raising as much money as possible, raising 440,000 dollars in just that one day - almost two times the initial goal amount they had set! People even literally jumped out of planes for these kids... with parachutes of course.

After months of skydiving and money raising, and 36 hours of dancing, IUDM raised 4.1 MILLION dollars all going straight into the Riley Children's hospital fund.

In the midst of all of the chaos in the world right now, it is amazing to see such selfless and heroic acts happening right on my and many other campuses around the country for the kids (FTK!) Everyone needs a little hope sometimes, and for 36 hours every year IUDM gives Riley families just that.