Marathon leaps over participant, fundraising records

The 12th annual Rutgers University Dance Marathon rang in the new decade with a record-smashing fundraising and participant high.
The state’s largest student-run philanthropic fundraiser this year raised the most money ever, raking in $378,001.75 for New Brunswick’s Embrace Kids Foundation, which helps the families of children with cancer and blood disorders with their non-medical and financial needs. This was about $55,000 more than last year’s record-breaking total.
The weekend-long fundraiser also had the most participants ever, with 714 registered dancers — about 100 more than last year — pledging to stay on their feet for the event’s full 32 hours straight with no breaks for sleep.
Dancers stayed energized and pumped with the marathon’s theme hours, side entertainment, round-the-clock Dj-ing courtesy of Hurricane Productions, tournaments and five live bands.
With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver this year, the Olympics inspired the event’s dance hours and activities in the College Avenue Gymnasium.
“The dancer participation is what makes the theme hours what they are. The ideas come from us, but how far they go is really up to them,” said Ashley Sam, community outreach captain.
Assistant Director of Community Outreach Angelica Grimaldi said this year’s dancer increase can be attributed to more first-year student participation, many of whom took leadership roles as captains, as well as an increase of residence halls joining together to form teams.
Grimaldi said alumni dancers also rose dramatically. There were 34 alumni dancers who came out, with four dancing the whole time. Saturday night also saw the event’s first-ever alumni hour to honor past dancers.
“We never had the alumni hour ever, and this year it was huge,” said Grimaldi, a Rutgers College senior. “I think we’re going to have a huge alumni participation from here on out.”
Alyssa Gentile, an alumni dancer from Class of 2009, was involved with Dance Marathon throughout her time at the University.
“I still wanted Dance Marathon to be a part of my life in more ways than just donating money, so I decided to dance,” she said.
As a former director of community outreach, she was nervous coming into this year’s marathon.
“I thought I would be bored, that my feet would hurt, but I’m feeling great,” she said. “I love seeing the families.”
Assistant Director of Volunteer Management Julia Crimi said organizations are matched up with children in the Embrace Kids Foundation. They then travel visit their adoptive children and spend time with them throughout the year. During the marathon, the families visit the dancers.
Ashrey Sharma, Delta Sigma Iota vice president, said when his fraternity started dancing Saturday, they were pumped. Once the night hit, they started to feel the pain of not sleeping or sitting.
“We were starting to feel really tired, but then our child came by,” he said. “Since then, everyone’s just been jumping around. Our spirits were down, but now it’s just we’re ending on a good note today.”
Sharma, a School of Arts and Sciences senior, said they visit their adoptive child, three-year-old Jacob Buccos, once a week at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
“It’s just fun watching him. And he makes you feel happy when you go and meet him everyday. That’s the best part about it,” he said.
Jacob’s mother, Tammy Buccos said Jacob was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic lymphoma, a form of leukemia, last summer, and the Embrace Kids Foundation helps the family immensely.
“They help us financially, like with an electric bill that we found ourselves falling behind with, embrace kids has helped us out with that,” Tammy Buccos said. “Just the everyday of helping [Jacob] get through the transition of him being in the clinic weekly, helping us with it as a family and dealing with his cancer.”
While greek organizations are heavily involved with Dance Marathon, this year saw an increase in non-greek organizations and individual dancers not tied to a group.
“I know there’s a misconception on campus that Dance Marathon is all-greek, and a lot of other organizations do get involved,” Sam said. “There are a lot of non-greeks making their way into it and really making it a mix of non-greek organizations and greek organizations.”
Sam said this increase in participation was due to the recruitment team.
“They were out giving presentations on all of the campuses starting back in September as soon as school started,” said Sam, who also noted an increase in media and press relations.
Crimi, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore, oversaw everyone who volunteered their time for Dance Marathon, including dancers, committee members and captains.
“We had a more selective process in hiring captains and committee members,” Crimi said. “We wanted to get the best of the best this year.”
As a result, Dance Marathon had never run more smoothly, she said.
“Dance Marathon is all of the most passionate people around one cause coming together,” Crimi said. “College students have such a bad stereotype, that they just drink and party and don’t go to class, but here you have 1,000 people in this gym for these kids.”
Although it lasts 32 hours, Dance Marathon starts planning for the next year about a month after its conclusion, said Sam, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student.
“It’s a very long process,” she said. “It takes a lot of time on everybody’s part. It’s hours and hours a week every week leading up to the marathon.”
One month prior to the event, Dance Marathon hosts its Spirit Week to drive up competitor and fundraising spirit.
“We do it about one month before the marathon to get everyone ready for the final stretch,” Sam said.
The participating organizations compete for spirit points and the winner is announced at the concluding ceremony of the marathon. Sorority Alpha Chi Omega maintained its tradition of winning spirit week this year, but fraternity Chi Psi won the award of being the most spirited fundraisers throughout the year.
Jennifer Kantor, a Rutgers College senior and member of Alpha Chi Omega, danced for the first time this year after participating for the past three.
“Even though standing for 32 hours is difficult, it’s definitely worth it when you see the kids and what this means to them,” she said. “I feel tired but I feel like I accomplished something good.”

Source: http://www.dailytargum.com/news/marathon-leaps-over-participant-fundraising-records-1.2204550