The annual campus-wide, 24-hour Dance Marathon fundraiser organized by Hope College students is returning to an in-person format — although still with adjustments — when it runs on Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, in the Dow Center, after taking place largely remotely in 2021.
The event, which has been held on behalf of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital of Grand Rapids every year since 2000, traditionally features all of the hundreds of participating students gathered in the Dow. Last spring, however, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the format was shifted to a remote format to limit the number of people together. Although the Dow Center still hosted the end-of-marathon announcement of the total raised, the students participated individually or in small groups in their residences or other locations, checking in online periodically to demonstrate that they were indeed afoot.
This year’s marathon, the 23rd, will essentially land in between the two approaches in consideration of the ongoing pandemic. While the event will again take place in the Dow Center, the more than 760 students who have signed on are being divided into three 8-hour shifts to reduce the number of people present at any one time.
“Hope College is one of the few Dance Marathon programs across the country with a full 24-hour marathon,” said the group’s staff adviser, Katie DeKoster, “Dividing all of the dancers and moralers into shifts will enable us to keep that tradition alive while maintaining a lower head-count at any one time for COVID safety reasons.”
As an additional precaution, participants and visitors will also be required to be masked.
Many of the on-site highlights that have become part of the Dance Marathon tradition will also be returning, including the arrival and opening ceremony starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 4; and presentations and activities throughout, like a talent show featuring children who have been served by the hospital, a lip-sync competition and the line dance; and performances by campus groups including Hip Hop Anonymous and the Chapel Band. The total raised will be announced during a celebration that will begin at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, as the Dance Marathon’s 5 p.m. conclusion approaches.
Activities on behalf of the marathon began shortly after the beginning of the fall semester and have involved more than 40 teams organized by student organizations or independent groups of students. The 760-plus Hope students who will be participating in the March 4-5 Dance Marathon include not only dancers but morale boosters, and others in a variety of administrative and support roles.
To emphasize the children that the marathon exists to help, the Dance Marathon’s student organizers coordinate a variety of activities during the course of the school year to connect with families and children served by Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. In addition, each of the families is paired with one of the participating student groups.
Students involved with Dance Marathon have raised funds for the effort in a variety of ways, from a 5K Donut Run during Hope’s fall “One Big Weekend” combining Homecoming and Family Weekend; to writing letters to family and friends; to a silent auction.
Affiliated with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Dance Marathon at Hope is one of more than 400 such efforts at colleges, universities and high schools nationwide. Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $300 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since its inception in 1991.
Dance Marathon first came to Hope in March of 2000. Though a school of the college’s size was only expected to raise about $5,000 in its first year, the students raised more than $23,000. In the 22 years from 2000 through 2021, Hope’s Dance Marathon raised a total of more than $3.3 million.
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a 242-bed national referral center and teaching hospital, providing comprehensive clinical care to the children of West Michigan and beyond. It offers advanced pediatric specialty care with more than 300 pediatric physicians who practice in 70 pediatric specialties and programs. The hospital also provides care close to home in more than 50 regional clinics and shares its expertise through Partners in Children’s Health: a collaboration with more than 30 hospitals throughout Michigan. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 10 years in a row.
In order to help support the vast number of children who visit the hospital each year, all proceeds from the marathon will go directly towards the funding of special programs that are designed to make the young patients’ visits to the hospital more bearable; helping the families of the children to deal with their illnesses; and supplies related to treatment and care.
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is an international non-profit organization dedicated to helping children by raising funds and awareness for 170 children’s hospitals throughout North America.
Additional information about Dance Marathon and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, and about how to make a donation, is online at hope.edu/offices/student-life/dance-marathon/
The Dow Center is located at 168 E. 13th St., on 13th Street at Columbia Avenue.