Hundreds of Vanderbilt students will dance the night away Friday, Feb. 19, at the Student Recreation Center during the university’s annual all-night Vanderbilt University Dance Marathon. The pledges and admission fees for this year’s Dance Marathon benefit the Craniofacial Treatment Center at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, which provides life-changing treatment for children with congenital and acquired deformities of the skull, face and jaw.
Doors open at 7 p.m. Friday night, and the event ends at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. Dance Marathon is open to the public and will feature performances by Vanderbilt student groups and Children’s Hospital patients.
Vanderbilt student groups participating in the event include the Spirit of Gold Danceline, the university’s official dance team; Momentum, the first student-led dance group; VIBE, a hip-hop dance troupe; Tongue ‘n’ Cheek, an improv sketch comedy team; the Swingin’ Dores, an all-female a capella group; and the Dodecaphonics and the Melodores, two all-male a capella groups,.
Later in the night – and into the morning – Dance Marathon will keep the party going with “morale dances,” games, trivia, dance lessons and performances by hypnotist Jon Taylor and 80s cover band Ronny Raygun.
Admission is $10 per person and free for children five and under. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the families of Children’s Hospital patients and participate in a silent auction. Items at this year’s auction include Kaplan test prep courses, a Daytona Beach timeshare, an autographed poster from “ESPN SportsCenter” and an overnight stay and dinner for two at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. Activities for kids include face painting, arts and crafts, caricatures, a balloon artist, games, a bounce house, an inflatable slide and more.
Vanderbilt’s Dance Marathon is the eighth-largest partner of the nationwide Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon movement. The largest student-run philanthropic organization on Vanderbilt’s campus, Dance Marathon pursues year-round fundraising efforts that culminate in a 14-hour dance event. Now in its eighth year, Dance Marathon has raised more than half a million dollars for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Media contact: Princine Lewis, (615) 322-NEWS
princine.lewis@vanderbilt.edu