Just about 2 weeks ago, I walked into a bare-walled Civic Center basement. After a few days of tears, hard work, and a lot of love and miracles, Dance Marathon at FSU internal team members welcomed in hundreds and hundreds of dancers to a colorfully decorated Civic Center, ready to dance for those who can't.

After 3 days of line dances (@morale you killed it), miracle stories, fundraising, and memories I can PROUDLY say we raised $1,941,368.54 for the kids of Children's Miracle Network, the FSU College of Medicine Outreach Programs, and Shands Children's Hospital in Gainesville. A lot of talk has gone around about this number, but I am here to say that this astronomical number isn't just a monetary amount of money, it represents over ONE MILLION miracles that we made. So no matter what anyone says, there was absolutely no falling short here in year 25, that is OUR number of miracles.

I also gotta say that year 25 was something new for a lot of people. Personally, being on Outreach this year not only gave me a new perspective on Dance Marathon, but gave me a new outlook on quite a few things outside our little DM world. Although this is cheesy, I think that everything ended up exactly how it should've been in this monumental year. I grew as a person thanks to Dance Marathon & Year 25 so that being said, I wanted to thank my biggest supporters and the people that quite literally got me to where I am today:

To my donors: Personally, I raised $1,935 this year. I had my sights set on $2k, but nonetheless I came SO close & I am so proud of myself for singlehandedly putting up a big chunk of change to our final total. With a year full of new, interesting, and hefty responsibilities in and out of this organization, I definitely felt like I did all that I could to create miracles and raise funds for those that need it the most. I love giving back, but I have to thank y'all because those 1.9k miracles would not have been possible without YOU. Every single one of you helped me give back and make a difference regardless if you donated $1, or $100. Thank you for being part of our movement & thank you for joining our fight.

As much as we all love our donors, we know it takes more than just money and donations to organize and execute a large scale, student run, charitable event such as this one. To Internal: y'all rock my world. Although I am part of this team as much as any of y'all are, it is truly inspiring to see so many different people and so many different teams come together as one fluid and cohesive unit for one cause and one weekend main event.

The facts don't lie when they say that dance marathon is a yearlong movement, because we work our booties off from the first week post marathon when management applications come out, until the second the final reveal ends and we lock up the storage unit after taking down and packing up the civic center. This main event, our crazy number that we raise, and the love and miracles we make for the miracle families would not be possible without all of my fellow internal members. It's a big job, but one that's definitely worth taking.

Now, we can't forget about the external dancers fundraising with their organizations because they are the future of our organization!! To the Dancers: I know I've talked a lot about those special internal members, but our dancers are just as much part of our fight!! Without our dancers, we'd have no one to put the main event on for. We love all of our dancers dearly and hope they have the best experience ever in those time-warping walls of the civic center so that they choose to either move up in our organization and join internal, or that they continue to come back and dance with us year after year.

To the Families: Your support means the world. I know we support you with our love and funds, but the fact that y'all always have our backs through it all makes it that much more special. All of you have incredible families and superstar children that I will dance for until I can't anymore. Thank you for letting us help you and being FTK with us. Even though y'all are the beneficiaries, you continue to help us and love us, which means the world and then some. I love you all.

To the High Schoolers: I think y'all are incredible, inspiring, and you make me prouder every single day. Seeing all that you do as kids, fighting for the kids is something that will leave an everlasting imprint on me. You all push me to be a better human and remember to have fun every once in a while. Such passion and drive from a young group of students reminds me why I picked my career path and why I can't wait to have my own students like you guys one day. Momma loves you all forever!!! Keep killing it and thanks for being FTK with me, my superstars.

To my INL's: We did it. We made it. Regardless of the circumstances, I am beyond proud of each and every one of you for going above and beyond this year. All of my INL's hit dancer commitment by the time statement was over and all achieved their goals. As if that isn't cool enough, 6 of the 11 of them hit comma club as first year dancers. I don't care what the number was up there on that stage, because those stats and you guys made me realize that I did my job as an outreach captain. You guys are ON FIRE for this cause and it blows me away. Y'alls future in this organization is so bright and I can't wait to watch you shine. I loved being your mom & don't forget I always will be... DM Fam Jam forever.

Finally, to my team: I have one word for you... cloutreach. I love you all, I do, and I think the magic we made this year when we weren't even realizing it is everlasting on our INL's. I'm sure you all agree with me when I say that our INL's give us hope and a glimpse into the future of DM at FSU. This ride would not have been complete without y'all and I truly can't thank y'all enough for putting up with my ~sometimes~ overbearing passion for this organization. Y'all really FTKilled it as first year captains and I cannot wait to see where the rest of our journey with DM takes all of us.

To all the other universities around the country that got their main events cancelled because of all the chaos going on in our world right now, my heart goes out to you. Your miracles will not go unnoticed and I still encourage every one of you, dancers included, to continue in fighting for the kids this year and every year.

I just wanna thank everyone for reading my thoughts about my favorite movement post-main event and monumental year. I also want to thank everyone who took this ride with us for year 25. Every event DM hosts sets my passion for this cause on fire again and reminds me that there's always a way for all of us to do more and remember that we dance for something bigger than ourselves.

$1,941,368.54... so grateful for our number. As always, Go Noles and FTK.