In its simplest form, Wake ‘N Shake is a 12-hour dance marathon to raise money and awareness for the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. The first Wake ‘N Shake started in 2006 as a group of 300 students who set a goal to raise $30,000 for cancer research. Yesterday, only 10 years after the first Wake ‘N Shake, more than 1,300 students worked together to raise over $200,000.
To be honest, I initially decided to participate in Wake ‘N Shake because I felt like I should. Sure, I was happy to get involved in a philanthropy event that supported cancer research, a cause that is close to my heart. But what did dancing for 12 hours straight have to do with cancer?
Regardless, I signed myself up for the last six hours, grudgingly paid the registration fee, and prepared myself for what I thought would be six hours I just had to get myself through to say I had done it.
However, by the end of my six-hour shift my view of Wake ‘N Shake had changed completely.
My shift started out slow. Enthusiasm was lacking, and all my friends and I really wanted was to be able to sit down without getting yelled at. The possibility of ducking out, just for an hour or two, to go back to my dorm and cozy bed crossed my mind more than once. But the encouragement from everyone around me to stick it out and the promise that it would be worth it was persuasive enough.
Dancing for several hours straight is hard (especially if you and your crew are really working the dance floor). But after hearing the testimonies from the cancer survivors and the friends of those who had lost their battles, I realized that standing on my feet for six hours could not even begin to measure up to what they had all been through.
Or what my grandma fought, or the suffering my grandpa went through, or what my friend experienced battling leukemia at age 10.
In the final minutes of the marathon with my glow stick raised in the air to indicate that I knew someone diagnosed with cancer among hundreds of other raised glow sticks, I finally saw the purpose of dancing for 12 hours straight.
Wake ‘N Shake is more than just raising the money.
Wake ‘N Shake is a representation of our dedication to those who are currently battling cancer. It is a representation of our determination to end the pain and suffering that this disease causes. It is a representation of our commitment to keep on living for those who have lost their battles.
Yes, the money is incredibly important. But what is also significant is the passion and community that accompany the desire to find a cure. Cancer affects nearly everyone in negative ways.
But if we let that negativity take over, we let cancer win.
That is why we dance. That is what Wake ‘N Shake now means to me: the continued positivity in remembrance of those we have lost and the determination to end the suffering cancer imposes on all of us.
I started the night as a less than enthusiastic participant, but it didn’t take long for the passion of Wake ‘N Shake that filled the gymnasium to infect me too.
