Update: At about 9 a.m. Dance Marathon at UF announced in a Facebook post that it did not reach its goal. It came close with $139,274.65 raised, which was 92 percent of its goal.
Melissa Dukes, public relations overall director, said she was proud of everyone that contributed and participated.
"At the end of the day, it’s not about the number, it’s about the kids and the fact that we were able to raise this much money in 24 hours," she said. "We’re really excited to see where we go for the next couple months and where we go with DM 2015."
As UF students hurried across North Lawn toward the Reitz Union on Thursday afternoon, a group of Dance Marathon members called out from a table decorated with yellow balloons and red collection buckets.
“It’s a beautiful day to save lives,” said Jessie Anderson, a 20-year-old UF health education and behavior sophomore, hoping the “Grey’s Anatomy” reference would attract people to the table.
The excitable group was one of many scattered across campus, part of the group attempting to raise $150,000 for the marathon’s first 24-hour fundraiser, Transform Today. As of press time, results were unavailable.
The event began Thursday at midnight, when the marathon committee released a promotional video on its Facebook and YouTube pages. All the money donated goes to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital.
DM programs at other schools have held similar events, though usually with less lofty goals.
“We haven’t seen a number quite this big,” public relations overall director Melissa Dukes said early in the day. “So we’re really excited, and we’ve gotten a lot of support from other schools and other Dance Marathons.”
While $150,000 seems like a lot to raise in one day, Dukes said, the size of the university and the level of involvement from the community are reasons for optimism.
“The way that we’re incorporating the campus and the community, we’re really making an effort to reach out to both and engage everyone,” she said. “It’s just a really great way to start off the year and the semester.”
Along with volunteers scattered across campus, other team members looked for new ways to raise money. There was a Phone-a-Thon in Matherly Hall from 5 to 9 p.m. where callers reached out to friends and family for donations. Facebook statuses flooded newsfeeds, with one member offering to drop her Marriage and Family class for a donation.
Some businesses got involved, too. For every like Campus USA Credit Union got on its Facebook page, the company donated $1 to the cause.
Next to Anderson Hall, 20-year-old Nedim Haveric tried a more sentimental approach to the passers-by.
“We literally would have frozen to death if it wasn’t for people like you,” the UF industrial and systems engineering junior said to a donor. “Because you’re warming our hearts!”
Michelle Nguyen, a 21-year-old UF finance junior, said the group had been told it was the most energetic by fundraiser organizers.
“But ... I don’t know what they’re thinking,” she said about 30 seconds after she cheered loudly, drumming the table as a student dropped a donation in her bucket.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/9/2015 under the headline “DM tries first 24-hour fundraiser"]
Christopher Dela Cruz, a 22-year-old UF APK senior, sings a cover version of the song “Rude” by Magic! A participant in Dance Marathon’s Transform Today initiative to raise $150,000 in one day, Dela Cruz was asking passers by to drop a donation in an open guitar case.
