Dancing for a Cure to Childhood Cancer

Rita and I went to a great event last weekend: Dance Blue at UK.

It was held in UK's Memorial Coliseum, the "Rupp Arena" of my undergraduate days. It was great to walk up the ramp again, past the names of fallen soldiers, and pictures of past champions.

After getting my floor pass from Evie Wilkinson (Harvie & Nellie's daughter and former Cassidy student) I walked into the hall where I once watched LSU's Pete Maravich score 64 and lose to UK by 15 or so.

But this time the floor was pulsing with movement. It was 6 in the evening and 500 students had been dancing for 23 hours straight, all for the benefit of UK's effort to combat childhood cancer. It was great to see so many young adults willing to spend a whole day for the benefit of children they didn't know. In the process they raised almost a half million dollars.

Everybody's favorite part of the program seemed to be the line dance that occurred at the end of each hour.

This photo (from a prior year, I suspect) hardly does it justice. Imagine 500 in synchronous movement, arms waving, bodies bending, hopping, swaying and swooping through intricate routines - largely in unison - to high energy hip hop, country, pop, rock, and movie music. I was amazed.

When we first arrived, the theme for the hour was "1980's high school prom" complete with prom dresses, and a surprising number of students who knew the words to the old school rock that was "spinning" from Mark Denomme's MacBook; even the less popular stuff like Annie Lenox's "Walking on Broken Glass." As a thank you, several cancer survivors performed for the marathoners too.

Good Clean fun all night long.

We had contributed before, but attended this year because of the participation of "our youngest," Catherine, a sophomore. I'd like to take the liberty of saying how proud we are of her participation.

I'd also like to take this liberty....

You never know where those Facebook photos might show up. : )

This from the UK press release:

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 23, 2008) − After 24 hours of non-stop dancing, they were exhausted and footsore, but it didn’t show when the 490 University of Kentucky students and dozens of young cancer patients and their families were told all they had sacrificed was worth it – to the tune of nearly $425,000 for pediatric oncology care at the university.

With tears and cheers, the DanceBlue participants celebrated a total that quite nearly doubled last year's.

After his team beat Arkansas Saturday afternoon, Men's Basketball Coach Billy Gillispie dropped by Memorial Coliseum and was so moved by the students dedication that he wrote a check for $10,000.

Earlier in the day, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear declared it DanceBlue Day in the commonwealth. The year of fundraising culminated with a 24-hour, no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon and the students' inspiring results – $424,855.89 – for the Golden Matrix Fund and the Pediatric Oncology Clinic at UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital.

The third annual DanceBlue, the UK Center for Community Outreach’s largest student-run philanthropy, involved hundreds of students on the dance floor, on the stage, and behind the scenes raising money on behalf of the Golden Matrix Fund. The fund provides families who have a child with cancer with emotional support and financial aid, and supports pediatric cancer research at UK.

The money students raised also funds improvements to the facilities and services for pediatric cancer patients at UK. In its first year, the students raised more than $123,000. They nearly doubled that last year with a total of $241,515. In addition to fundraising, student organizations are involved with the Adopt-A-Family program, which pairs students with the families of pediatric cancer patients. Students provide emotional support for the families and organize fun activities for the patients and siblings.