Marywood University celebrated its first ever dance marathon, which fully benefited the Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital in Allentown, Pa. The night included face painting, sand art, cornhole, catered food, and, of course, a lot of dancing!

Both themed and ‘morale’ dances carried on throughout the night. The Highway Line Dancers taught students their moves and Marywood’s Zumba instructor, Vanessa Rodriguez, kicked off the night with a wild (and tiring) workout. Committee members and student volunteers learned a ‘morale’ dance to be performed once every hour, in an effort to keep everyone moving.

About halfway through this semester, the dance marathon committee reached its fundraising goal of $12,000.

“The fundraising wasn’t the hard part,” explained Kevin Farrell, the director of the Office of Student Engagement and adviser to the event committee.

“Fundraising is what people are most passionate about. With the small number that we have signed up right now, we have raised, at this point, over $15,000. If we got even double the amount of people to sign up, just imagine the impact that we could make on the hospital,” Farrell said.

Prior to the main event, volunteers planned out a spirit week, looking to get the word out about the dance marathon.

“On Monday we carried the balloons, then [Thursday] we did the stuffed animals,” said McKenna Seavey, a sophomore painting major.

“I know we got lots of questions and it was a great opportunity to explain to everyone why we’re doing it and what the reason behind it is,” said Seavey.

Although the weekend was a resounding success for it being Marywood’s first year doing it, there were some universal challenges in getting the ball rolling.

“[The hardest part was] definitely just spreading the word about it and debunking a lot of the misconceptions, explained sophomore social work major Josie Galella.
“People thought they had to do this much or had to do this and that’s not true. All we wanted was to make an opportunity to spread awareness and make something great for these kids,” said Galella.

The night ended with a game of ‘DJ Bingo.’ Students scanned a QR code, bringing them to a bingo card of popular songs throughout history and today. Winners went home with gift cards to restaurants near campus.

“We’d definitely love to be able to see it happen again,” added Galella.

“As long as the students want it, we will continue to do it,” said Farrell. “As soon as we see that students really don’t want it, there’s really no point in us doing it, but that’s how we’re trying to do everything at student engagement. As soon as we hear that students aren’t buying into it anymore, then okay, we’ll move onto something different.”

Patients and families were invited to the closing ceremony event on Saturday, April 20. There, students cut off their gray wristbands as a symbol of hope for the hospitalized children.

“It’s a great event, it’s a great cause, it brings the community together. I think it’s something Marywood would definitely benefit from,” said Seavey.

For more photos from the Dance Marathon, check out the photo gallery on the Wood Word’s website.

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