“We laughed, and we cried, and we danced, and had a really, really, really good time.”
If you attended SAU’s Dance Marathon 2.0 event on Saturday, April 5th, you would have heard about 680 people belting out those lyrics as they danced their last dance of the night. This year, St. Ambrose hosted its second annual Dance Marathon which is a philanthropy event where students clad in neon orange and lime green pledged to spend 10 straight hours on their feet to raise money for the Iowa City Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Dancers were kept entertained throughout the event with opportunities to play laser tag, get their faces painted, buy some cool DM apparel printed on site, throw their friends in DM jail, or hit up the photo booth and take silly pictures. That’s not to mention all of the dancing!
“I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to fall.”
The highly creative Morale dance was performed every hour on the hour throughout the entirety of the event. The Morale dance song was a fun and funky five minute mash-up of songs ranging from everything like “Fire Burning” by Sean Kingston to “Wake Me Up” by Avicii and the Friends theme song tothe iconic line from Despicable Me, “I’m so fluffy I’m gonna die!” that kept dancers engaged and pumped up throughout the day. The atmosphere instantly livened back up when the Morale dance began, which always followed an emotional talk given by one of the families.
Every hour of dancing finished with a talk given by a Miracle family about their personal journeys with the Iowa City Children’s Hospital and their experiences with Dance Marathon. The families shared the stories of their kiddos’ illnesses, family pictures, and sometimes videos. One kiddo, Sergio, had passed away after a strong battle against cancer. His family still represented him at Dance Marathon. His mother read from a poem that talks about how there are two dates on your tombstones but it is the dash, that little dash, in between the numbers that means the most. You can read the full poem by Linda Ellis here.
“That’s what makes you beautiful.”
During the evening, the kiddos and their siblings took over the stage to show off their special talents. Miracle kiddo Madi was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy as a toddler. Despite her physical challenges, Madi is your average second grader who boldly took the stage to sing “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction with the help of morale captain, Otto Linderman. Madi’s two older sisters performed a stunning tumbling routine full of jumps, kicks, and flips. Kyle, another Miracle kiddo who was diagnosed with rare brain malformation called Joubert syndrome, moved the crowd to tears with his rendition of “I Can Only Imagine” by Mercy Me.
If you noticed Monday morning in class that several of your classmates were all suddenly rocking stylish bobs or shaved heads, it is because over 60 students lined up after the talent show to donate their hair! Capri College beauty students came to assist with the hair cuts. The experience proved to be an emotional one for many of the participants for several reasons. Junior Rachel Pasker has always worn her hair long but made the decision to donate10 inches of her hair at the event. When I talked with her about her experience, she said, “I was so nervous to cut so much off but when I saw the pictures of Alexis wearing her wig in the hospital, I knew I could do it.” Alexis is one of the teenage Miracle kiddos, was diagnosed with cancer when she was in the 7th grade. She was the only kiddo to give her own speech and bravely showed the crowd photographs of her time in the hospital without her hair and wearing a variety of wigs.
FTK
At the end of the night and after 10 long hours of being on their feet, the dancers finally got to find out how much money they had raised throughout the year. Everyone in the room was anxious and excited for the Big Reveal and those doing the revealing created quite the suspenseful atmosphere as they dropped poster boards that continued to have different phrases such as “For the Kids!” and “We are the Difference” written across instead of numbers. Finally, the numbers were revealed! This year’s Dance Marathon goal was to raise $60,000. DM dancers ended up beating all expectations by raising a whopping $132,148.02!
This year’s DM Morale Director, Mary Scheck, was just as surprised as everyone else. “Never did we think we would raise what we rose this year,” she said. “We thought maybe $100,000, just maybe. Never did I imagine that St. Ambrose would make 132,000 miracles! That’s ridiculous!” The executive board members were kept in the dark about this year’s fundraising total just like all of the dancers. DM Finance Director Emily Fritz was the only one to know the secret number.
Students at St. Ambrose University banded together this past weekend to dance for fewer hospital visits, for more first kisses and little league games, for loved ones dancing in their hearts, and for all of the Miracle kiddos. What did you dance for?
Thank you to the executive board members Amanda McClure, Averi Wilson, Lindsey Gibney, Jessica Grier, Candance Pierce, Mary Scheck, Abby Cassens, and Emily Fritz, who made the entire event possible and to all of the Miracle kiddos for continuing to inspire us with their bravery and strength every day.