Alright, time for an exercise. Close your eyes (metaphorically). With your eyes metaphorically closed, what do you think of first when you think of Dance Marathon? Do you think, maybe, of that intensely bright green? The flashing lights and excitement of the Big Event? Maybe a friend or family member is involved in the org, and their smiling face pops up for you. While these are all incredible answers, Dance Marathon 25 wants to provide a change for that, on an individual as well as a communal level. Whether you’re involved in the organization or not, you can agree as well as anyone that pediatric cancer needs to be eradicated in any way possible. A child affected with cancer is a child who is fighting something that no one deserves to fight, much less a person who still needs a chance to go to their first day of high school, to have their first love, to make their first lifelong friendship.
They need a chance to live.
Going into Dance Marathon myself, I was trying to make an impact on someone else’s life. But I had no idea how much it would make an impact on me. To see young people so full of hope and excitement in turn gave me hope and excitement. To hear the stories of the Dancing in our Heart families still coming to these events, still coming out for Dance Marathon with so much love, made me feel the endless support that the organization creates as a community. It was when that big three-million-dollar number flew up on the stage that one big realization occurred to me: I had something to do with that number. I helped Dance Marathon raise x amount of dollars, and that all went to help childhood cancer. Whether you raise $1 or $1,000, you make a direct impact on that final total.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a first year dancer or a fifth year exec member, whether you’re alumni, faculty, or donor, you are shaping your impact within Dance Marathon. You are helping a child with cancer and their family afford medication, hospital bills, blankets, toys, and so much more. With Shape Your Impact, University of Iowa Dance Marathon’s first ever campaign, we hope to give a platform for everyone to know that they are making a difference.
This entire organization was founded on supporting and loving the heck out of these kiddos, and today’s organization seeks to pass that support onto you. Because while being endlessly grateful for every act big and small, the fact remains that pediatric cancer still exists. Every day modern technology and medicine work with each other to find a true cure for cancer, but until then, it’s here to stay. And until then, so are we.
UI Dance Marathon 