This year's Knight-Thon was the most amazing one yet!Ever greek organization stood for 20 hours in order to help those in need! #Knightthon2014 Imagine you’re in a car going from UCF to New Hampshire without stopping.  Now imagine you’re having to stand that entire trip.  Sounds impossible, except that’s exactly how long roughly 800 UCF students stood for once 12pm rolled around on Saturday, April 5^th for Knight-Thon, UCF’s annual dance marathon to raise money for the Greater Orlando Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. The marathon, which is the 12^th largest dance marathon in the country, is UCF’s largest philanthropy.   
Standing for 20 hours may sound brutal, but the Knight-Thon Exec and Morale Team made sure there were plenty of activities and entertainment to keep participants energized and motivated to keep raising money.  For starters, there was the ten-minute dance routine, which was taught to all the participants at the start of the event, and later performed every hour on the hour (imagine a giant flash mob). There was also a DJ spinning throughout the duration of the event, a rave hour, and games for participants to channel their inner children including Ping-Pong, foursquare, life-size Jenga and Connect 4, and two blow-up obstacle courses.  Knight-Thon even welcomed live entertainment, ranging from a Zumba instructor, line dance instructor and hypnotist to performances by Rukus, UCF’s swing dance team, and four UCF a cappella groups.   
While the event was nothing short of entertaining, what is most important is how impactful it was- not only on the children and their families, but on the participants as well. Whenever “I’ve Got the Magic in Me” blasted through the speakers, students immediately formed a human bridge and cheered as the miracle children and their families ran underneath and eventually hopped on stage. Once the families began speaking, students kneeled out of respect and listened as they were told stories of fear, loss, courage, hope, and the happy endings that were given to the children because of the money raised for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. “Hearing how scared these parents were for their children’s lives and how many surgeries and issues some of the children experienced before even turning ten years old was unimaginable,” says Corina Roman of Zeta Tau Alpha.  “It warmed my heart hearing the parents and kids tell us we are part of the reason the kids have been able to grow.  Hearing that changes your life.”        
At around 7:15am the following morning, just before the end of the marathon, the Exec and Morale teams gathered on stage, each with a poster in hand for the big moment- the moment everyone finds out just how much money was raised in the past year for the Children’s Miracle Network.  In just one flip of those posters, participants went from silent to screaming as the posters read $392,813.65, surpassing Knight-Thon’s goal of $365,000.    And we have Greek Life to thank for a lot of it- the three groups who raised the most money, from third place to first, were Alpha Xi Delta, Zeta Beta Tau, and Alpha Epsilon Phi. 
Be proud, Greeks.  We’re more than socials, formals, recruitment, and tailgates.  We’re students who have the power to use our influence on campus for good.  If you didn’t participate in Knight-Thon this year, do so next year.  It will change your life, and more importantly, you will be changing someone else’s- someone who wants nothing more than the opportunity to someday be where you are.