HuskyTHON. Most students at the University of Connecticut talk about this event all year long. But what exactly is it? How did it get to become so popular?
HuskyTHON is the University of Connecticut’s version of an 18-hour-long dance fundraiser with all money going directly to treat children at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. It is run through the Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon. This organization works with over 400 universities across the United States and Canada to raise money for local children’s hospitals. Although this organization has been around since 1991, HuskyTHON has only been a part of UConn culture since 2000. It has grown immensely in these past 25 years and I am here to break down the growth of this fundraiser since the beginning.
For the first eight years of HuskyTHON, an average of less than $16,000 was raised each year. Although this may seem like a lot of money, this fundraiser was not even close to reaching its full impact. With a lot of advertisements for the fundraiser through word of mouth and increased student enrollment at UConn, two years later, over $100,000 was raised in just one year. These numbers continued to grow as the University of Connecticut continued to break records across the board.
In the 2018-2019 school year, the University of Connecticut even won a shoutout from the Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon for having the most monetary growth in fundraising across all participating Universities for that year.
For context, in 2018, HuskyTHON raised $1,021,485 which is already staggering on its own. However, UConn students were not done there. They were determined to not only meet this number but to blow it out of the water by more than $300,000. In 2019, HuskyTHON raised $1,328,402.19 for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center! This amazing work done by the HuskyTHON organization is what made them receive the excellence in participant funding for that year.
HuskyTHON continued to win internationally recognized awards for their excellence in fundraising. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic beginning to infiltrate colleges around the country, UConn was able to raise $1,520,234.98 and receive another consecutive award for excellence in participant stewardship.
This fundraising record had not been broken for almost four years. Until this year. With thousands of participants in this 18-hour dance marathon, UConn was able to raise $1,736,591.22! Not only did this number break the previous all-time high record in HuskyTHON history, it did so by more than $200,000. With this momentum, it will not be surprising to see HuskyTHON break $2,000,000 next year.
This success in fundraising could not be done without the passion of UConn students behind it. For an entire year, students work tirelessly to raise money for these children because they love to do so. They love giving back to the community.
Andrew Nash, the Program Development Manager of Children’s Miracle Network sums up the passion of this organization and all its University chapters:
-Andrew Nash