There’s a lot of community service that goes unnoticed here at WVU, but one that I think needs to have more attention was none other than the Dance Marathon hosted this past Saturday. It was my first time ever participating in an 18 hour straight community service event, but I figured I’d try it out. It seems sort of intimidating at first, but with the support of your friends and everyone you meet at the marathon, it’s more than accomplishable.
A lot of people don’t really know what it’s all about. Basically, Dance Marathon is an all night event to help raise money towards the Children’s Hospital corresponding to your area, ours being the one at Ruby. You “dance” for 18 hours straight (12 noon-6 a.m.), symbolic of the struggle the children face daily at the hospital. Earlier in the day/evening, they bring local families to share their story and dance with the participants. Each and every single child there was a miracle, and their voices needed to be heard by the people in attendance. If all the dancers were struggling before that point, there was no stopping us after we’d heard from the kids afflicted with horrible circumstances.
All night you learn a specific dance that you are able to perform at the end of the night. There are select amounts of time for “free dance” and activities, as well as guest dancers who teach you new things – like this year’s African Music & Dance team and Belly Dancing. The DJ’s play music to keep you on your feet and help you motivate you to move. Obviously as the night ticks on it gets harder to stay standing and dancing, but time really flies when you’re having fun. This year WVU’s Dance Marathon raised over $27,000, all of which will be donated to the Children’s Hospital at WVU. This is amazing, but not much compared to Penn State’s “THON” which raised $9.2 million dollars to their children’s hospital. The amount of students that participate is outstanding, and I can only hope to see WVU get that involved in such an amazing cause.