National Residence Hall Honorary held their first charitable Dance Marathon at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Velzy Commons, Feb. 8.
When we last spoke to NRHH Vice President Sydney Denstorff in January, they had only 20 people registered for the marathon at that time.
The final count of people in attendance ended up being around 81 people.
All the NRHH members that were involved in making the Dance Marathon happen were extremely happy with how many people attended the event to show their support.
“I think it’s going very well, and it seems like people are enjoying themselves and starting to hangout with each other,” Denstorff said. “There are a few things I would want to change for the future, but overall, for this being our first year, I think it’s going great.”
To begin the night, Molly Friederick, a family member who was involved with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, came to share her family’s story.
Unfortunately, her 10-year-old son Tate Friederick, who would have accompanied her to the event, passed away the week before the event.
Friederick shared a few stories about her son and insured everyone that he was watching over them at the dance.
She also stated that her son’s favorite song was “Roar” by Katy Perry, requesting that everyone think of him whenever the song was played.
To honor Tate’s passing, NRHH dedicated the entire night to him and came up with the slogan #EightForTate, as the marathon was held on Feb. 8.
NRHH allowed people to register late throughout the week of the marathon, including up until the day of the dance.
The organization also said that as long as one donated at least $10 and filled out a registration form, he or she would be allowed to attend the event.
They decided to do this in an attempt to find people who would be willing to attend and show their support for Tate and the Friederick family.
“We heard about the Dance Marathon through other NRHH members,” sophomore criminal justice major Chandler Lehrer said.
Along with Lehrer, junior biology major Ellary Nemetz and junior Spanish major Hannah Corcoran both agreed that more people should come next year because it is held for a good cause and it became even more personal with the story of Tate Friederick.
A key aspect of these charitable dance marathons is the nine-minute line dance that everyone in attendance is able to learn throughout the night.
Team Morale, the NRHH coordinators, introduced the dancing portion of the night by getting on stage and showing the crowd how it was done.
Around the beginning of each hour, three members of the Team Morale moved to the front of the stage and taught the crowd, consisting of 81 people, different segments of the dance.
The leaders broke the dance down into six segments, as the dance consisted of 37 different songs and taught the audience members one segment at a time.
“I think the night is going great so far,” junior and NRHH member Hannah Shuler said. “People came in all sorts of costumes, which was really funny.”
If participants became tired from dancing, there were also a few craft tables that allowed them to make bracelets, masks and coloring pages, and they could even write a note to the kids to be delivered to the children’s hospital later this week.
To keep the Dance Marathon participants with enough energy for the night, NRHH had multiple dance organizations from the university perform.
The Pioneer Dance Team was the first to perform.
An hour later, members of the Belly Dance Club arrived and gave an interactive performance.
After they performed their number, the belly dancers taught the crowd a few simple moves.
The next dance organization to perform was FusionX, followed by the Swing Dance Club, to end the guest appearance performances.
NRHH members received around 55 donated prizes from local businesses that were raffled off that night, ranging from $5 Steve’s Pizza gift cards, to $50 gift cards to Pioneer Lanes.
Nearly everyone in attendance was eligible to win a prize.
At 11 p.m., it was finally time for the crowd to learn the entire dance routine.
When they hit their last pose of the final song “Don’t Stop Believing,” a loud roar of excitement filled the room.
To conclude the night, they planned to announce how much money was raised.
Denstorff’s goal was to reach $2,000.
“I know we beat our $2,000 goal, but I don’t want to know how much we raised until the end when it’s announced,” Denstorff said.
Members of Team Morale went on stage and held up a card with a number on it, which represented one of the numbers included in the total.
When Team Morale flipped over their cards, the final amount raised was $2,938.10.
All the money raised will be donated to the Waukegan Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.
