The Good Years

During my freshman year of college, I was invited to speak at Marquette Dance Marathon. After sharing my story at MUDM’s event in 2016, I fell in love with the event. I have now been volunteering with Marquette Dance Marathon for three years.

Our organization works to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. In 2011 when Dance Marathon was brought to Marquette’s campus, we raised $35,000. Last year, MUDM raised $90,000 for the kids. Knowing we have the ability to raise that much money pushes us even more to set a higher goal. At the end of our event in 2018, we hope to have raised $125,000. That may seem like a high number — but we have more than enough motivation to make it happen.

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin is a Miracle Network Hospital meaning that it benefits from public donations that are collected in efforts of relieving families of financial stress associated with their child’s necessary treatments. As a result of fundraising, Children’s Miracle Network has raised over $5 billion since its beginning in 1983.

I work on an executive board with 17 people year round to raise as much money as possible for the kids at CHW. Motivation, for me, derives from the the fact that I have the opportunity to help families in similar situations to what my family and I endured years ago. In response to asking Becca Bixler, a Vice President of Dance Marathon, why she is involved with the organization, she replied, “I love Dance Marathon because we are just a group of college kids who have quite a bit on our plate, yet we can make such a difference in a child’s life.”

The final push at the end of our fundraising year is the actual Dance Marathon event. From 10am-10pm, participants dance, play games, and eat food! In addition to all of these fun activities, Champ Families (families who have been treated at CHW) share their stories on stage in order to motivate participants to keep their energy levels high and remind them of why they are working so hard! “Dance Marathon is a great organization to get involved in if you want to have a huge impact on people’s lives, starting on Marquette’s campus”, stated Bixler.