Dance Marathon, a mini version of the large, annual fundraiser which has taken place at the University of Missouri-Columbia since 2008 to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network, according to mizzoudm.org, has occurred at RBHS with its students for the past two years. This year will be the first for the “mini” Dance Marathon as it’s called, to involve all three high schools together.
“The University organizers are continuing to find ways to involve more and more high school students in the Dance Marathon,” RBHS director of student activities David Bones said, “and we thought it would be more efficient if they tried to have one Dance Marathon that involved all three high schools as opposed to trying and organizing three separate, mini Dance Marathons.”
High schools and colleges across the United States participate in dance marathons as part of a movement started for the Children’s Miracle Network, according to mizzoudm.org. Just a couple of years ago, organizers from the Mizzou Dance Marathon team approached the high schools to propose the idea of a mini Dance Marathon. The event has since been planned in collaboration between the RBHS student council members and the Mizzou Dance Marathon team.
This new, larger Dance Marathon requires more people to plan at each school, so there are boards assembled at each of the high schools. Senior Whitney Cravens has been involved with the Dance Marathon for all of her three years at RBHS, helping plan it and as well as attending during her sophomore year.
“Each high school had a different goal of how many kids; Rock Bridge’s goal was 150 kids to come, and we also set the fundraising goal and named it, chose a logo, that kind of stuff,” Cravens said. “A lot of it was planned by Mizzou, which was really nice because it wasn’t that hard to plan with their help, but the hard part was getting kids to come.”
Cravens hopes the date change will encourage students who didn’t know the Dance Marathon was happening, or who couldn’t come in the past weekend to attend on the new date. Last year, the RBHS Dance Marathon just surpassed 150 attendees, and now with more time to promote the fundraiser, the hope is that RBHS will surpass their same goal of 150 students attending.
In trying to support the Children’s Miracle Network students pay for their entry and can purchase a T-shirt for an additional fee. Last year, the RBHS Dance Marathon alone raised $2,170 for the cause. For their donation, the students spend six hours dancing and participating in competitions at every hour.
“By the end of the mini Dance Marathon night, kids are so tired, but they just feel great,” Bones said. “Cause it’s not just standing around trying to dance for six hours, they’ve got competitions every hour, have people participating in these really goofy [activities] … it’s really well organized, they’ve got people who kind of help get everyone excited [and] of course, it’s for a good cause.”
This cause has a high chance of gaining support with time as new students come to participate in the dance along with returning participants. Junior Betsy Poehlman, is one who attended the Dance Marathon last year when it was just a single school event at RBHS.
“There are no formal groups this year, but I am going to go with some friends,” Poehlman said. “I’m actually kind of glad that it got postponed because I had something on the day it was originally scheduled.”
By Madi Mertz
Do you plan on going to Dance Marathon this year?
