This past weekend, from 2 PM Saturday until 2 AM Sunday, approximately 275 TCU students went without sitting down. They danced for the kids who cannot and for Taylor Helland. There was a noticeable weight in the room as the TCU community mourned the death of someone so committed to Dance Marathon, but they honored her in the best way possible: they chose joy. The atmosphere was solemn, yet joyful as TCU Dance Marathon more than doubled their fundraising goal and celebrated life.
Dance Marathon is a nationwide event that takes place at 350 schools across the country each year. It is sponsored by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and benefits local children’s hospitals across the United States. Dance Marathon was started at TCU just last year, yet TCU students are already making a huge impact on children who are staying at Cook Children’s Hospital here in Fort Worth. We sat down with members of the TCU Dance Marathon Board, a liaison for Cook Children’s hospital, and a representative of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to learn more about what TCU Dance Marathon does and how it is making a difference in our community.
We talked to Jenny Grifenhall to hear about Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the history of Dance Marathons. She also shared about how the TCU Dance Marathon program is growing and how she believes TCU students are going to do great things for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Q: Can you tell us about Children’s Miracle Network and Dance Marathon?
A: “I work for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I’m a Dance Marathon manager for the entire state of Texas. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is an umbrella organization that supports 170 children’s hospitals around the country. Here in Texas, there are 16 children’s hospitals. The different ways [we raise money] range from radiothons, telethons, stuff like that. We also have a bunch of corporate partners, and Dance Marathon is one of the ways that [people] raise money for their local children’s hospital. Essentially, my job is to work with college students at all the universities in Texas to put on their events, keep the best practices, stuff like that. Dance Marathon has been in existence for 25 years. It was founded at Indiana University. It has just grown significantly since then. There are now 350 Dance Marathons throughout the country. TCU is in its second year. They’re growing phenomenally. This program will be just reaching all the new heights in the next couple of years. I’m very, very proud of what they’ve accomplished this year and in general. They’re making a huge splash in the Dance Marathon scene nationwide, so I’m very, very proud of them.”
Jenna Phillips is this year’s TCU Dance Marathon’s marketing chair, and she shared with us specifics about TCU Dance Marathon.
Q: What is Dance Marathon all about?
A: “Dance Marathon is a nationwide event. It’s at 350 schools, and it’s all for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Whatever hospital is close to that school, they [raise money] for that hospital. So for [TCU], it’s Cook Children’s Hospital. [Indiana University hosted] the first one, and they raised $3.8 million this year, but their first year they raised $10,000. Last year we raised about $11,000; this year our goal is $20,000, and I think we beat it, but knock on wood. It’s all about just doing it for the kids. We dance for a long time because it’s something hard, it’s something hard on our bodies, but we get the strength from the kids because what they go through is a lot harder than dancing for twelve hours.”
Q: How long has the TCU Dance marathon been going on?
A: “So this is its second year. Our first one was last February, and it was going on for a year of preparation before that.”
Q: How many students do you have participating this year?
A: “This year, last I checked it was 250 registered, which was our goal, which is good. I think we’ve had some more register since, so if I had to guess, I’d say around 275.”
Q: How does the event work?
A: “You have to stand the whole time. There are different things each hour; we have a Zumba instructor, we have a yoga instructor, we have a ten-minute dance that throughout the whole thing they teach. There’s a group, they’re called Morale, and they teach you the dance throughout the night. You learn a minute here, a minute there, throughout. And then we have Cook Children’s patients coming to tell their stories. We have the TCU guys that come to the football games, Superfrog is coming, we have the line dancing guy from Billy Bob’s, we have a couple bands that are really fun, and then a rave hour where we turn the lights off and have glow likes and everything like that.”
Q: How does the fundraising work?
A: “We do a lot of restaurant partnership fundraisers. A lot of our committee members would do like this Uber-esque things where they would say to their sorority, ‘Hey, if you’re going to the bars or you’re going wherever and you need a ride, instead of paying Uber, let me drive you and donate the money to TCU DM.’ A lot gift-wrapped at Christmas, raked leaves for friends, babysat and said, ‘Whatever I make babysitting, I’m going to put it toward Dance Marathon.’ And then a lot of it is sharing on social media, saying ‘this is why I’m doing this, please help and donate.’ Our goal, down the road, is, a lot of other schools have other big events throughout the year that lead up to their main event. [We would like to do something like that], but obviously we want to build this up first.”
Q: Why did you get involved in Dance Marathon?
A: “I’m from Indiana where it’s a really, really big deal. I was involved in it in high school and everything. My mom went through cancer and I saw how hard it was on a fully grown adult, so I can’t imagine being a kid and going through something like that and being in a hospital for that long. I know that the nurses and the staff that you have can change your outlook on everything. And having a positive outlook can change if you survive or not and how long you can battle. The nurses at Cook’s are just exceptional.”
Q: What are some ways to get involved in upcoming Dance Marathon events?
A: “There’s a lot of committee positions available. If you’re good at anything tech, like video, photography, graphic design, anything like that… that’s all really helpful! Then [we have everything from] Morale team, where you’re dancing, to marketing to fundraising, and a lot of it’s really good for your career and practice. But also, just joining your sorority or fraternity’s team or starting a team with your friends, coming to the event. We go to Cook Children’s and volunteer there, so coming to those events with us. If you can’t be here, donating to one of your friends. And then just paying attention to the events we have throughout the year and going to those as much as you can.”
Lastly, we spoke to Haylie Hall a Cook Children’s liaison who shared the ways Dance Marathon is helping Cook families.
Q: What effect does this have on Cook Children’s?
A: “The fund that their money will go into is called our Children’s Fund or our Greatest Need Fund. It can mean almost anything, but I like to narrow it down to uncompensated care. So about $40-50 billion a year go into uncompensated care, and that can be sending a child with cancer or a blood disorder to a special camp, Sanguinity, or their sibling can go as well. Or helping a family put a wheelchair ramp in their house, or anything like that. It could be a new specialized stethoscope for our NICU. Meals for a NICU family because the average stay for a NICU baby is 22 days so that’s 132 meals for two parents, and they’re so worried about their child and worried about all that, that they don’t go buy their meals. They don’t stay healthy because they’re not eating when they should or whatever. So the Children’s fund can help provide those meals for parents that are trying to stay healthy for their children that are fighting in the hospital.”
TCU Dance Marathon ended up raising $45,442.23. This is more than double their goal for the year, and they tripled the amount they raised in their first year. If you are interested in becoming more involved with TCU Dance Marathon, visit their website, tcudancemarathon.com.
Photos by Isabella Nucci, Eleni Michaelides, and Hayden Mahaney.