This past weekend, I struggled but conquered the almighty DMUM, or Dance Marathon at the University of Michigan. At DMUM, all participants are required to stand for 24 hours straight. Why, you ask? Well, it’s all for the kids of course. FTK or “for the kids” represents the money that all participants raise to support pediatric rehabilitation programs at C.S. Mott and Beaumont Children’s. Walking in to it I thought, “24 hours…it’s gonna be a breeze” but boy was I wrong. At the end, even though my feet were aching, my body was hurting, and my eyes were closing, pushing through that final 10 seconds of standing was the best thing I’ve ever done.
Hour One:
Hour one was evidently the easiest hour that we had to endure. We got to see all the families that we were raising money for and were able to get a feel for the room that we would be spending the next 24 hours in. The amenities included: A mini basketball court, an inspiration room where you could make bracelets, an arts and crafts station with board games, puzzles, and coloring books, a study area, and of course the stage. Basically everything needed to keep someone busy.
Hour Six:
Hour six: still a breeze. My legs were starting to feel a little achy but nothing that couldn’t be ignored. By hour six, the entire crowd was already well into learning the annual line dance and every time it was time to learn a new piece, all the participants, including myself, ran to the stage in excitement. To clarify, the line dance qualifies as most of the dancing part of “dance marathon”. Every hour or so a song would play meaning it was time to learn a new piece of the dance and every hour we would learn two minutes worth of a dance routine separated into three snippets of three different songs. If i’m being honest, this was by far my favorite part as it served as a distraction in the later hours.
Hour Twelve:
By hour twelve my body was 100 percent starting to feel the toll of not sitting. My feet were in pain and I was bored of doing my homework. People around me started to get grumpy and tired as it was around 1 am but at least there was something to look forward too.
Hour Thirteen:
RAVE TIME! From two in the morning till around four in the morning were one of the best parts of dance marathon. You forgot all about the ache in your back and the pain in your feet and only cared about having a good time. Not only was there a fantastic DJ but students groups also preformed to a maybe deliriously tired crowd. This was also the time when your drunk friends stumbled in to visit after a late night at a bar and were in the mood for a quick rave. All in all, everyone came together for an unbelievably fantastic cause.
Hours Fifteen through Eighteen:
These three hours were by far the worst. Everyone was extra tired from the rave and everyone just wanted to go to bed but we did not give up. Instead, we found creative ways to rest our legs. Example below.
Hour Twenty-four:
Yeah we might’ve been tired, yeah we maybe wanted to cry during a couple points of the night, but we never gave up!! Everyone at DMUM worked so unbelievably hard. The event was incredible and it was truly a fantastic experience that I would no doubt in my mind do again. In the end, we were able to raise $510,702.86 for the kids and I could not be more proud of my team and anybody else who participated. Plus, we finished our line dance which ended up being almost 15 minutes long.
Images courtesy of: Masha Chernitskaya