NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Vanderbilt’s Dance Marathon committee began
planning its February 2004 event last fall, the end goal was simple: to
raise more money than it had the previous year, an amount of about
$6,000.
Dance Marathon 2004 far exceeded its goal by raising almost $50,000, a
feat that earned it the Children’s Miracle Network’s "Most Improved
Dance Marathon" award at its annual Dance Marathon Leadership
Conference held July 23-25 in Atlanta. The money raised goes directly
to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, a local member of the Children’s
Miracle Network.
Vanderbilt students and Dance Marathon executive board members Lindsey
Herrel, Annie Longenecker and Barrell Barbour attended the Atlanta
conference and accepted the "most improved" award, accompanied by Dance
Marathon staff adviser Kristin Torrey and Vanderbilt Children’s
Hospital’s Lisa Zanger.
Torrey says implementing new initiatives, along with the cooperation of
numerous student organizations, was key to the success of this year’s
event.
"We undertook a letter writing campaign, which was a new fundraising
strategy for us and brought in more than $30,000 in initial donations,"
Torrey says. "And we involved the manpower of a variety of different
student organizations-fraternities and sororities, multicultural
groups, the Student Government Association, Interhall and the
Vanderbilt Programming Board, to name a few."
Torrey says the early-February opening of the new Children’s Hospital
served as an added incentive where fundraising efforts were concerned.
"We asked all the students who were participating in Dance Marathon to
tour the new Children’s Hospital, and when they were able to meet the
patients and their families and actually see where the money was going,
it increased their connection to the hospital, thus increasing their
fundraising efforts."
Plans are already underway for Dance Marathon 2005, which will be held
Feb. 18-19 at the Student Recreation Center. Organizers plan to stick
to-and build on-the formula that yielded this year’s success. The first
event in the 2005 campaign is a benefit barbeque scheduled for Oct. 2
during Freshman Family Weekend.
For more information regarding Dance Marathon at Vanderbilt, visit http://www.vanderbilt.edu/dance_marathon/.
Media contact: Kara Furlong, (615) 322-NEWS
kara.c.furlong@vanderbilt.edu