I remember looking up the events that happened on my college's campus way before I was had actually decided that I was going to accept their admission offer. I remember stumbling upon something called 'Dance Marathon' and reading the description going "Yes, I definitely want to do this. I want to dance for 20 hours how fun would that be oh my gosh" and then I forgot about it for about 8 months.
Fast forward to my first semester in my sorority and someone saying that she wanted to do DM this semester and wanted to know if any of the sisters wanted to join her. I asked what in the world "DM" was and she told me "Dance Marathon. You stand for 20 hours as a way of raising money for the Children's Miracle Network."
I signed up within the next two weeks and that is how my love of DM began. I attended the event with ten of my sisters (including my biggles!!) and while they were all miserable for the majority of the night, I was bouncing around like the energizer bunny telling everyone to be happy. I did the same thing the next spring only this time I had someone as equally peppy and excited as I was. My dancer-buddy-for-life as I called her helped me get through my second DM and it was even more fun than the first. We even had a life changing moment where we were told we could sit down. SIT DOWN. For about three seconds we started to sit. And then we all stood back up. No, we weren't going to sit. We weren't going to stop dancing or standing or fundraising until our 20 hours were up. Until we KNEW what our final total was. Until we knew that we had done all we could during those 20 hours. And we didn't. We raised 701,493.16 during the months leading up to DM and DM itself. I thought it was higher but I was incorrect.
This year it is only me and one other sister who are trying to dance at the event. Its more difficult for us to raise money as a smaller organization but instead of putting a cap on how many participants each organization can have go to DM they have it so that only the top fundraisers are able to dance. That is how it has always been but this year there as been so many people who have signed up to dance that the rule of "only the top fundraisers are allowed to dance" is actually being enforced. You would think that they would change the rules a little to allow people from each organization who want to participate to actually participate. They changed the rules and made it exceptionally difficult for the
smaller organizations on campus to have as much participation as the
larger ones as we can no longer due dancer substitutions which hinders participation. But I digress, that isn't the point of this post.
The point of this post is that when I chant "F.T.K." or when I hear "just keep dancing" I actually mean it. Children's Miracle Network is one of the places my nephew would turn to if we needed to find more answers or alternate treatments. Dance Marathon is an experience that touches (most) people (ie people who actually care and are not there just because it looks good or because its an easy way to get community service) on a level that they might never have experienced before and might never experience again. For 20 hours you have hope regarding the human race. For 20 hours you know that you are doing something to help those kids. For 20 hours, you are proud to be tired and in pain and feeling like you'll never be able to stand again because you know that what you're doing matters.
I've got two weeks to earn my way back to Dance Marathon. I shouldn't have started this late, I know that. I was way too worried about school and getting other girls to sign up. Today I sent out six emails and IM-d a ton of people. I will make it back to DM even if I go by myself. I will dance. I will help those kids and I will spend my last spring as an undergrad participating in the most important thing that my college has given me. Dance Marathon. For the Kids.
If you took the time to read this and it impacted you in anyway or if you just want to help please donate here:
http://noles4kids.kintera.org/KatiBowen
