Some heroes fly…others dance. On Saturday, March 10th, the University of Maryland held their 3rd annual “Terp Thon” at Cole Field House. Over 600 students signed up to be a dancer and raised a minimum of $100. Each dancer pledged to stand on their feet for twelve hours in honor of the sick children at The Children’s National Medical Center.
Why twelve hours you might ask? The nurses shift at the hospital is twelve hours long. Terp Thon is about showing support for not only the children, but also the nurses and staff members, who dedicate their time and effort into helping so many children each day. This year, Terp Thon raised an outstanding amount of $268,027.49, which is now the current record for the most successful third year dance marathon in the nation. In fact, Terp Thon broke the record for the most successful first year, and second year as well.
“Terp Thon became so much more successful this year,” said junior government and politics major Ramin Nejaddehghan, “Terp Thon’s executive board, captains, and committee members worked hard every single day to produce the miracles that we witnessed on March 10th, 2012.”
Nejaddehghan was the head of the fundraising committee for Terp Thon. One of the Terp Thon miracle children who attended the event, Ryan Cole, is the son of one of the alumni of his fraternity. “I knew that I would become heavily involved with Terp Thon because I wanted to help more kids just like Ryan.”
Nejaddehghan thinks that Terp Thon ran very smoothly this year, but hopes that a greater number of dancers will attend in the future. He believes this will not only make Terp Thon more successful, but even more fun and exciting.
Cole Field House was filled with endless Terp Thon excitement. There was dancing, food, crafts, games, and miracle stories shared from different children who were patients at Children’s Hospital. The night ended with a “power hour” which was an hour of techno rage music and glow-sticks to give that one final push to keep standing.
Bea Zamfir, a freshman hearing and speech sciences major, had a blast at her very first Terp Thon event. “My favorite part about Terp Thon was making the children feel like rock stars!” Zamfir said. “Whether they sang, danced, or even stood on stage in front of a large crowd, you could see the light in their eyes and how much love they were feeling.”
Emily Morrow, a sophomore environmental science and policy major, also attended Terp Thon for the first time this year. She said that her best friend who goes to Penn State helps plan their Thon and encouraged her to do UMD’s dance marathon. She decided it would be a great time to bond with her sorority sisters, raise money for a great cause, and challenge herself not to sit for twelve hours. “At about 10 p.m. I didn’t know if I was going to make it and that totally pumped me up,” Morrow said about power hour.
Terp Thon will continue to get bigger and better each year, making many more miracles along the way.