What I Learned from DePaul’s Dance Marathon Fundraising Club
I am just finishing up my third year at DePaul, and my time here has been filled with a lot of different things. I have met a ton of really cool people, learned so much both in and out of classes, and have been a part of many different student groups and organizations. Looking at all of those student orgs, I think that DePaul’s chapter of the Children’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon, DemonTHON, has probably had the biggest impact on me personally.
For those who are unfamiliar, Dance Marathon is a pretty common student organization with a presence at a ton of universities across the country. Children’s Miracle Network is the national organization that oversees all of the individual student groups at colleges and universities. The way the club works is as follows: a handful of students hold positions on the executive board to run all of the different parts of the club, planning events throughout the year to raise awareness and invite participants to raise money for a children’s hospital, all culminating in a huge end-of-the-year, all day dance marathon event. These organizations are truly incredible and do monumental work for children’s hospitals across the country. To use DePaul’s DemonTHON as an example, this year there were around 20 people on the executive board and over 200 participants fundraising money, resulting in an incredible final event and over $110,000 raised for Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
With six figure results like that, the student club effectively has to be run like a small business. Students get experience managing money, as well as other students in their committees, and they even get to work with corporate sponsors and representatives from the hospital to make the organization and final event as amazing as it can be. With those factors in mind, the club provides invaluable practical experience to anyone looking to get into business or the nonprofit world, or really any field that requires solid communication and teamwork skills. I am close friends with the person who was vice president during this year, and she says that her experience helping to manage the entire organization has given her more knowledge than any of her classes, and she always brings it up during interviews and it has helped her secure multiple professional opportunities.
Obviously the money raised for the hospital is incredibly impactful and the practical experience that students get is invaluable, but I want to talk about the part that I think is less obvious but just as powerful for the students involved. In my personal experience with DemonTHON at DePaul, it is without a doubt that I can say that the best people I have met at DePaul have been through this group. I was recruited freshman year by that same friend who went on to be vice president, and stayed with the executive board for two years before stepping down to just be a fundraising participant this year. Due to some other opportunities and goals I wanted to achieve I was not able to make a further commitment on the executive board, however the time I spent holds some of my favorite memories at DePaul. The college students who want to dedicate a significant portion of their free time to running a student club that raises money for a children’s hospital are unsurprisingly going to be some of the best people at the school. In my experience, they are so nice and so supportive and just so fun to be around. I think most people in the club came to do something positive for the world with their extra time, but stayed because the people they found and were surrounded by are the best of the best. If you are coming to DePaul or going anywhere else, I urge you to check out the Dance Marathon club, I can guarantee that the people in that group will welcome you and be some of the coolest people at the school.
My goal with this post was to hopefully shine some light on DemonTHON and the amazing work that the group does, and also shine a light on the less obvious benefits of Dance Marathon groups everywhere through my own personal experience. Above all, I cannot stress how awesome the people in these groups are and how much I want you to check it out once you get to school!
~Jeff