Three Dance Marathon programs excel for fall push days

In a year of extraordinary uncertainty, our three collegiate Dance Marathon programs held successful push days for their local Children’s Miracle Network hospital, UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital. For 26.2 hours from Tuesday, Oct. 27 to Wednesday, Oct. 28, both Dance Marathon at the University of Florida and Dance Marathon at Florida State University held their fall fundraising push events, Transform Today and Florida Statement. OwlThon at Florida Atlantic University held theirs, Be Bold, a few weeks later on Tuesday, Nov. 18 and Wednesday, Nov. 19.

Students rallied and raised funds through a variety of safe and virtual ways, culminating in total reveal events outside their respective basketball arenas, football stadiums and campuses via livestream. Dance Marathon at UF’s Transform Today raised $578,874 for UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in a socially distanced in-person and virtual hybrid format, maintaining the international record among all Dance Marathon programs for a single fundraising push. Dance Marathon at FSU’s Florida Statement raised an impressive $400,595 virtually for both UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital and the FSU College of Medicine’s pediatric outreach programs. FAU’s OwlThon Be Bold event raised an incredible $21,671 for its local CMN hospital. These funds are unique because the money raised is sent directly to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, which is more than four hours away.

Transform Today, Florida Statement and Be Bold are part of year-long efforts where students raise funds and awareness to support Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. These collegiate programs and their supporting high school programs all contributed to the event’s successes. Between the 26.2 hours of their combined efforts in October and November, students from Dance Marathon at UF and FSU and from OwlThon at FAU raised more than $1,001,140 for UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital!