Who stands for six straight hours with no break and dances until their legs are in agony? University of Oregon students.
The national non-profit organization Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals allows people to raise funds for local hospitals across the U.S. UO Miracle, a dance marathon taking place in the EMU ballroom on Jan. 24, will benefit children at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene. Students stand or dance for six hours, while also raising money through donation portals online for an ongoing period of time.
This year, UO Miracle pushed awareness of the event to gain a variety of participants in the hopes of raising more money for the cause. Although FSL is a big part of the event, all students from UO and outside community members have the opportunity to participate.
“We don’t want it to necessarily be a Greek event, because it’s actually not,” said UO Miracle Morale Captain Chair, Jamie Falcone.
Susan Burton, Assistant Director of Student and Alumni Relations, said that students outside of the Greek community looking to join a team were encouraged to join the Student Alumni Association team.
“I think we probably have the most diverse group of participants this year,” said Anetra Brown, SAA Director of Philanthropy.
UO senior and Miracle Executive Director, Amanda Merrill, said that although UO Miracle is a high energy event, the standing represents how a parent would feel standing over their child’s bed in the hospital.
After registering online, different groups of students or “teams” can start raising money before, during, and after the event. Although the top teams are usually the UO Miracle’s Exec Team and Morale Captain Team, high energy leaders and volunteers for the event, sororities Gamma Phi Beta, Delta Delta Delta and Kappa Alpha Theta are ranked top three for Fraternity and Sorority Life in terms of money raised.
Sara Lensing, Gamma Phi Beta freshman, said that UO Miracle helped a family member of one of the sisters in her sorority.
“I feel like we have people who are more passionate about the cause because they’ve seen how it’s helped sisters and we support our sisters as much as we can,” Lensing said. “We see the direct effects of UO Miracle in everyday life and we’re all rallying together with each other in order to support the kids.”
In addition to making UO Miracle’s presence more known to a variety of groups, changes were made to include all groups participating.
“We have awards for most spirited and most fundraised, and those go out to any team really. In the past it used to only be Greek Life,” Falcone said.
Even with a push to add more variety to its participants, Fraternity and Sorority Life is an important aspect of the event due to the amount of money that the Greek community brings.
“There are so many ways people can get involved in something so much bigger than themselves,” Merrill said. “It’s a crazy thing, raising all this money, doing good for the world, and having a great time.”
As of now, there are 172 participants registered, who have already raised $14,079 between their 12 teams.
Dance Marathon trying to get dancers beyond fraternities and sororities
Anna Lieberman
January 22, 2015
0
More to Discover