“For the Kids.” A phrase that is commonly associated with Dance Marathon. Dance Marathon is an organization that works with college students and campus communities to raise money for local children’s hospitals. UNI’s Dance Marathon chapter is the largest student organization at UNI and has been on campus for over 10 years. According to Anna Nydegger, the organization’s external director, the mission for UNI Dance Marathon is to “do our best to provide support and comfort for our families who have been affected by childhood illness.” Dance Marathon works to raise money for the Stead Family Children’s Hospital in Iowa City, and hosts a variety of events over the year to raise money to support their families.
The main event for dance marathon is the Big Event. This is a 12-hour event that takes over all of Maucker Union with different events and activities happening throughout. The Big Event is happening on Saturday, March 1, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., where students dance on the hour, every hour, and work to raise as much money as possible for the children’s hospital and the families they support. However, Nydegger says that the Big Event is so much more than dancing. “There’s a hair cutting hour where we do an entire hour of cutting our hair … we have a power hour where the entire hour is filled with just getting as much fundraising done as we can.”
Nydegger says another popular event for dance marathon is their Miracle Gala. Nydegger describes it as reliving your high school homecoming or prom night, and families share their stories. “100% of the proceeds also go towards the hospital, and it’s a fun evening … of reminding us why we do what we do.
Aside from the Big Event and the Miracle Gala, UNI Dance Marathon hosts a number of other events throughout the year. One upcoming event is the Stacks for Stead event happening on Jan. 27 from 5-7 p.m. at St. Stephen’s, where students can pay five dollars for unlimited pancakes.
People from any major on campus are encouraged to join Dance Marathon. Nydegger stresses the idea that just because you’re not an elementary education major or don’t work with kids a lot, doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in Dance Marathon. “There’s so much more that you do in dance marathon that can be applicable to whatever you’re studying … and I think that’s something that people don’t really know.”
Dance Marathon also collaborates with various student orgs around campus to spread the word and encourage more students to join. Most recently, Dance Marathon hosted a pickleball tournament with the UNI Pickleball Club for a second consecutive year. Events like these bring more students to the organization that aren’t already registered.
The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to struggles for all student organizations, in recent years their numbers have risen significantly. Nydegger talked about how, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone’s morale was low, and because of that it was hard to get their numbers back to what they were pre-pandemic. However, in recent years people have been more open to joining student organizations across campus. “I definitely noticed that in the freshman class this year that they just want to get involved,” Nydegger emphasized. “It’s really cool to see how many [freshmen] we have and how they want to help and participate and stuff like that.
For those interested in more information or looking to register for Dance Marathon and/or the Big Event, they can go to https://www.unidancemarathon.com/
