The College of Pharmacy’s Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, Inc. and the Office of Student Activities are planning their upcoming Dance Marathon, a fundraiser benefitting Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
To promote the marathon, Kappa Psi and undergraduate students performed two flash mobs, one during the Cupcake Wars event on Nov. 20 in the Don Taft University Center and one in the Health Professions Division’s Terry Administration Building on Nov. 21. They danced to “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall and Oates.
Dance Marathon will start April 4 at 7 p.m. and end on April 5 at 7 a.m. on the basketball courts at the Recreational Complex in the Don Taft University Center. The club-themed event, which will be open to the public, will include food, performances, dance instructors and games. Children and families from Joe DiMaggio will attend and hospital representatives will speak.
Kaitlyn Bamrick, senior biology major, said the organizers also plan to teach participants the flash mob dance.
“I really want NSU to get a lot of different groups involved in one specific thing,” Bamrick said. “If there is something that will bring all of us closer together, Dance Marathon will do that.”
Kappa Psi Social Chair Faren French, third-year doctoral pharmacy student said she believes Dance Marathon is a chance for NSU to become aware of Joe DiMaggio’s need for donations and an opportunity for Kappa Psi to get involved in the community.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for NSU students to come hang out with their classmates and do something productive together,” French said.
Kappa Psi Director of Philanthropy Rachel Comito, second-year doctoral pharmacy student, said that Kappa Psi has held dance marathons the past few years, but this year, she wants to make the event bigger and use it to unite NSU as a community.
“I figured we can work with the Office of Student Activities to try to get Dance Marathon to the undergrads and to open it up to the entire NSU community and unite us as a whole,” Comito said.
Dance Marathon is a national event that raises money and awareness for the Children’s Miracle Network, a group of children’s hospitals, of which Joe DiMaggio is part. High schools and colleges host dance marathons to raise money for the children’s hospitals.
French helped organize last year’s Dance Marathon, which raised more than $4,000 for Joe DiMaggio. She said Kappa Psi donates to Joe DiMaggio because the group’s members wanted to give back to an organization in the local community.
“It’s a great organization in the community because they will take care of anyone whether they can afford it or not,” French said. “A lot of the schools that participate in dance marathon raise money for national charities but we thought it would be more important to raise money for a local institution.”
Starting next semester, participants will be able to register as a team or individual online at donordrive.org, for a fee, which also serves as a donation, the amount of which has yet to be finalized. Smaller competitions during the Dance Marathon will also raise money. Comito said the funds raised from the registration fee and the event competitions will help the children of Joe DiMaggio with pediatric cancer and their families.
“It helps not only the children to have better hospital stays but it lessens the financial burden on those families,” Comito said. “It’s for the kids and their families.”
Comito said Kappa Psi will continue to promote the event in the winter semester and is still in the process of working on promotion ideas.
“We want to unite the entire NSU community, all the students, all the staff and [we want] the community of Fort Lauderdale to come and join us and support pediatric cancer and fight for the kids,” Comito said. “We say that we ‘dance for the kids who can’t.’ That’s why we do the Dance Marathon.”
