It’s Dance Marathon’s second year at GW, and leaders of the 12-hour event are looking to pull in double the donation total – about $75,000 – to give to a local children’s hospital.
Organizers last year raised about $36,000. GW Dance Marathon’s 80 committee members have already raised over $50,000 with two more days before this year’s event.
“GWDM 2.0. Double the momentum, double the campus awareness, double the impact we make at the hospital and our overall goal is doubling the amount of money we raised from last year,” said Danielle Cohen, the group’s vice president of external relations.
The organization has boosted its presence on social media, asking all members to promote the event regularly on their Facebook and Twitter accounts in an effort to increase participation this year. Last year, 375 students registered to participate.
“We have a better grounding of what Dance Marathon is,” said Stacy Oentoro, who is leading public relations for the event. “Dance Marathon was such a big thing on social media [last year]. Everyone was wondering about it.”
Last Thursday, GW Dance Marathon committed to raising “10K in One Day” by blasting Facebook and Twitter feeds with requests to donate. The group collected more than $17,000 that day, President Libby Wuller said.
Wuller said she is confident GW Dance Marathon will be “in the ballpark” of its $75,000 goal.
“We could be above it. We could be right below. But what’s great is that that much money going straight to patient care makes an impact in a family’s life here in D.C.,” Wuller said.
Committee member Shakti Gurikar said the group raised about $5,000 on the day of the event last year. The money raised through the marathon will go to the Children’s National Health System in D.C.
“It’s more about relationship building and impacting the lives of these children rather than just the dollar amount at the end of the day,” said Claire Platt, the organization’s vice president of internal affairs.
Dance Marathon has taken place on more than 250 high school and college campuses nationwide since 1991. This year, GW Dance Marathon received $14,000 in Student Association funding, a more than 1,000 percent increase.
Students register for $10 and must fundraise at least $50 to participate in the event, which begins at noon on the fourth floor of the Lerner Health and Wellness Center.
