DANCE MARATHON HAS REORD-SETTING PUSH DAY, PLANS FOR BIG EVENT

JOEY GOETZ, TRUMPET STAFF WRITER

The largest philanthropic student organization on campus, Wartburg College Dance Marathon ended the year with a bang. 

Following their fall push day, the organization raised a record $54,000 to support children with pediatric illnesses and other injuries, eclipsing the previous push day goal from last year’s spring of $40,000. 

“Our original goal for push day was $44,000 for the 44 states that kiddos come across to get treated at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital,” said Co-Executive Director of WCDM Bailey Brown. “We surpassed that goal and hit $54,000. That is the largest number our organization has had on a push day, so that’s going to be the ‘one to beat.’ It was a pretty awesome day.”  

Brown is a fourth-year business administration major with concentrations in marketing and management. She is also a co-executive director of WCDM alongside fellow co-executive Director Kate Luers.   

Brown and the rest of the WCDM team held push day on November 18. The event was full of prizes, donation goals, and other activities to keep students engaged.  

“It’s basically 24 hours of trying to fundraise as much money as we can,” said Brown. “We just try to get students involved. We have miracle kiddos come throughout the day, and lots of incentives to win.”  

As an organization, WCDM has put in time and effort over the past 14 years raising money for the Stead Family Children’s Hospital.  

“Our mission is to raise those funds for kids with pediatric illness and cancer,” said Brown. “We have over 29 miracle families that we have in our organization. We pair them with morale teams and those morale teams have specific kiddos throughout the year, sending them letters, hanging out with them, and doing fun things like that.”  

Members of the organization that raise enough money can attend the yearly “Big Event,” a 12-hour extravaganza filled with food, games, and dancing. The Big Event was held last, but it was noncontinuous. This year’s Big Event, taking place on April 2, 2022, is already being planned as more of a return to normalcy.  

“Normally, we do 12 hours for our Big Event,” said Brown. “There’s playing games and hanging out, it’s a really fun time. Last year we had to break it up in shifts, so it was more difficult for people to stay committed and involved, but I think this year, with the full 12-hour swing, it’ll definitely be a bigger push for people to come.”  

To directly support the WCDM through a donation, register for the Big Event, or simply learn more, visit https://www.wartburg.edu/dm/ or email wcdm@wartburg.edu.