UNA’s Greek community, in partnership with Children’s Miracle Network (CMN), is bringing Dance Marathon to campus to raise awareness about CMN and to celebrate raising money for the foundation.

“We want to be service-minded and instill habits in our students to serve other people,” said Savannah Smith, graduate assistant for Greek life. “If we can raise up a generation that wants to give back and love on other people, that’s what’s important to me.”

According to a pamphlet distributed at the UNA Dance Marathon interest meeting, the event is focused on bringing attention to CMN and recognizing the impact on children that the event is organized for.

“The goal of the UNA Dance Marathon is not to have the most money raised, or to have the most hours recorded for dancing,” the pamphlet reads.“Our goal is a simpler approach: dance for those who can’t.”

According to the pamphlet, the CMN Dance Marathon began when students of Indiana University wanted to honor a would-be student, Ryan White, in 1991.

“Dance Marathon was started at Indiana University by a group of friends to honor their friend, Ryan White, who passed away before he was supposed to get to Indiana (University),” said Austin Smith, student director of the Dance Marathon and member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. “He’d received a bad blood transfusion and had HIV/AIDS.”

CMN then approached Indiana University to make Dance Marathon a fundraiser for CMN hospitals. Over 150 campuses nationwide have also picked up Dance Marathon and these campuses raised close to $12 million last year, he said.

“Helping students catch the vision of how neat (the Dance Marathon) is, that is what we want to do,” Savannah Smith said. “It just touches you to be a part of something this big.” 

UNA had a preview event last March to give campus a taste of what Dance Marathon is. This academic year, Freshman Forum has been recruited to get involved with Dance Marathon, she said.

“The exact date right now I wouldn’t say is that set in stone,” Austin Smith said. “It’s set for March, but it may get moved back. But it would definitely be this school year.”

UNA’s Dance Marathon would be 18 hours and 30 minutes, to symbolize UNA’s founding in 1830, he said. 

“The location hasn’t really been determined yet,” Austin Smith said. “We’re still looking into a lot of options. There will probably be a large variation of DJs, bands, different types of music.”

Every hour of Dance Marathon may have a different theme – such as a rock themed hour and a country themed hour – to keep people entertained. There will be different games and activities throughout Dance Marathon, such as hula-hooping and blow up slides, if funding is provided, Savannah said.

“We need passionate people on board with this,” Austin Smith said.

To get involved with Dance Marathon 2014, contact Savannah Smith ([email protected]).

Editor’s note: Editor-in-Chief Corinne Beckinger, a member of Greek life, did not contribute to this report.