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Six years ago Dance Marathon was brought to Grand View University. Over the past six years, Dance Marathon has raised over $100,000. This year alone was a record year. Although they were short on numbers of students that participated this year, they raised $31,584, the most they ever have.

“Dance Marathon is an organization that fundraises money for families with kids that have been diagnosed with any kind of cancer. Most organizations put on a event that runs anywhere from 6-24 hours where there are games, dancing (both good and bad), food, and fundraising as much money as possible in that given time,” said Family Relations Director Abbie Tjosaas.

Grand View University is just one of the several colleges across the nation that have brought Dance Marathon to their University. There are currently over 250 colleges and high schools across the nation that have a Dance Marathon. In 2018, 16 colleges and Universities across the state of Iowa hosted a Dance Marathon. Combined, those schools raised over $4.7 million.

“The money raised goes to the Iowa City Children’s Hospital. It goes to help families that need to stay with their kids and meal money as well as getting them Iowa gear,” said Grand View student Morgan Schwab, who is an event and entertainment coordinator. “In the last couple of years, part of the money that we have raised was able to help open a treatment room in the hospital.”

There are many ways people can donate to this organization. The online donor link is a very popular way people donate. The dancers are able to share their links online to friends and families and anyone is able to click and donate. Cash and checks are also accepted and for those that do not choose to donate money, they have the option to donate food or materials for the big event.

“It all depends on the dancer, morale captain, and executive board member. Each dancer, morale captain, and executive member have a fundraising goal that they want to meet which is a motivator to raise that much money. “Typically, we ask family members to help us support these families. We also reach out to different businesses to see if they will sponsor us or if they will donate money or materials for our big event,” said Tjosaas.

Dance Marathon is something that students take very serious. The preparation and hard work all leads up to their main event, the one day where everyone comes together and just dances. Not one person can do this all alone though. This year Dance Marathon had an executive board of seven people who all had their own specific job.” We have to set up fundraising nights and meetings for the dancers so they know what is going on and how to fundraise, we have to contact different sponsors, food vendors, inflatables, DJ , silent disco, etc to make sure that they can all make it. We have to create the schedule for the entire event and find other things (Zumba, yoga, minute to win it, etc.) to make our event more fun and engaging,” said Tjosaas.

It is not easy to prepare for the biggest day of Dance Marathon. There is a lot of planning that goes into it as well as a lot of first hand communication with students as well as trying to track down local businesses trying to get them to donate or sponsor the big day. On top of that, the people of Dance Marathon spend hours decorating and making sure everything goes smooth. Riley Corell, Director of Grand View University’s Dance Marathon chapter, says it takes all year to plan who will be performing, the families that will come, etc., but the actual setting up process takes roughly two days to get fully set up for the dance.

What is the take away that these dancers get from Dance Marathon? For Morgan Schwab, a two year morale dancer, it is the relationships that she makes with the kids and their families. Some of these kids are spending most of their time in hospital beds and it is cool to see these same kids being able to dance for just one day and able to have fun with other kids.

“Being able to make relationships with these kids and their families and hear about their stories is really special,” said Morgan Schwab. “Just to see them in there dancing and having fun and not worrying about being sick is the coolest thing for me.” For Abbie, it is very similar. It is a humbling experience for her to be able and meet and hang out with these families and getting to hear their stories. This day allows these kids and families to have fun and stress free.

“This is an amazing organization that does not get enough credit or attention. These amazing families go through so much and we just want to make sure that they can have a day where they feel “normal” and do not have to worry about any doctors appointments, treatment, or bills,” said Abbie Tjosaas.