College Dance Marathons Raising Big Money!

Rutgers Dance Marathon 2011 Marriage Proposal

I had not realized how big college dance marathons had become as fundraisers till I ran into some recent news items on the topic. And I had no idea college students would put in this much effort. Boy, was I wrong! Check this out:

The Rutgers University Dance Marathon just raised $380,351.10 for the Embrace Kids Foundation, a charity based in New Brunswick that helps children with cancer and blood disorders as well as their families with various forms of support. They organized 410 dancers who stayed up for 32 hours straight!

At Bowling Green State in Ohio students also did a 32 hour marathon and raised $217,785.92 for a children’s hospital. Both groups broke previous records and deserve some high praise.

What annoys me is that the above linked news piece on Bowling Green was filed under Odd News by UPI.com. Odd because young people are raising more money than anybody ever did back when I was in school? I think that’s a sign of disrespect, to be perfectly frank.

2011 Dance Marathon at Hope College

Apparently some of these marathons have been going on for years. A couple more examples, Hope College in Michigan raised $90,390 for DeVos Children’s Hospital with a 24-hour marathon while students at the University of Missouri-Columbia raised $47,049 with a 12-hour event.

And that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg! Big ups to all these young people giving support to even younger people. It’s good to see the power of dance being put to such good use.

More on YouTube:
university dance marathon 2011

college dance marathon 2011