After the half time dance of the varsity basketball game, the participants of the 3rd annual Riley’s Dance Marathon shared their joy of raising over $25,000 for the kids. Photo by: Katie Sommers
By Katie Sommers
This past Saturday, numerous students and staff participated in the 3rd annual Riley’s Dance Marathon and with the help of the community raised $25,074.01 for the kids at Riley Hospital.
The Dance Marathon was very successful the day of the event, but there was a lot of work the done before by the Dance Marathon Exec Board. The board was lead by Ms. Wezeman, Mrs. Portteus, and consisted of many PHS students. A few of the students that were on the board were seniors Zach Lee, Savannah Mae, Danielle Erickson, Kyle Barry, Hannah Jacobs, and Kelly Henderson, juniors Cassi Quissell, Amber Eckman, Libbie Portteus, and Abby Patrick, and sophomore Miranda Dunn. These meetings were held on Sunday afternoons and during SRT. At the meetings they organized fundraising, visited Riley’s Hospital, designed t-shirts, worked on advertising, and organized entertainment for the day.
Each participant was asked to not only pay a 15 dollar due, but also raise money to contribute to the $20,000 goal for the kids at Riley’s. Junior Libbie Portteus and Cassi Quissell were in charge of fundraising in the school and at athletic events. They planned bake sales and took the red Riley buckets to games. Portteus personally raised $250 by asking her family members. Sophomore Katelyn Berg raised $325. “I accomplished this goal very easily. I made a post on facebook with the link to the website and told people what we were doing and asked if they would to kindly donate. Then I had my mom get on her facebook account and share the post so everybody on her friends list could see it and possibly donate.”
The students that participated in the dance marathon performed during the half time of the varsity basketball game lead by Ball State University dance committee leaders. Photo by: Katie Sommers
All the participants were asked to come to school at noon on Saturday, February 8th, to sign in, pick up their t-shirt, and turn in money they personally raised. They did not just learn the half-time dance the entire day, but also had other entertainment. Senior Blake Milliser said, “It was a fun day! We got to listen to a bunch of awesome Riley kids tell their stories. We ate a lot of food, danced a lot, and learned the whole dance for halftime of the game. It was just a great day.” Junior Katelyn O’Neal thought the day was fun and tiring. “We periodically learned part of the half-time show dance. During breaks we were provided with a ton of snacks and activities such as Just Dance, cornhole, dancing, and frisbee tic-tac-toe.” Overall the day was filled with excitement, dancing, and many things to do.
The halftime dance was the focus of the day. It was lead by a Riley Dance Marathon committee from Ball State University that spent the whole day with the students. The dance consisted of a multiple diversified group of songs and different dance moves. Portteus said that it was fun because the Ball State University committee had funny little sayings to help them remember the moves. For some others the dance may have been a bit challenging. Junior Anna Piazza said, “I’m not very good at picking up stuff like that very quickly so it was a little challenging but fun. I reviewed the dance during breaks to grasp it better.” A few of the participants had other events going on throughout the day so they had to learn the dance within minutes for the half time show to preform.
After the halftime dance was performed, all the participants stood on the varsity gym floor pointing up at the Ball State University committee as they revealed the total amount raised. Junior Trevor Roberts said that he was very happy they beat the goal. Senior Ellen Smith said, “I was proud. Our dance marathon has grown so much since our first year, when we were nervous to raise $10,000. Now, we’re proving that we are taking our marathon seriously and it’s getting more efficient. $25,000 is something to be proud of! We passed our goal easily.”
With more dance marathons to come, past participants encourage more students to get involved and devote themselves to have fun for a day but also support a great cause.