“I’m still in shock a little bit,” said Chelsea Krivanek , the morale and recruitment chairwoman.
“It’s just kind of crazy to see something you worked on for an entire year come together and pay off. I literally can’t even explain why I’m crying. I’m just so overwhelmingly happy.”
Although raising more than half a million dollars was an accomplishment for the organization, the executive board members for Dance Marathon said money is a secondary victory.
“Honestly, it’s important, but really, we like to measure our success by the number of people we touch in the community,” said Evan Sherwood , the business management chairman. “Monetary amount is just one way to measure success.”
Executive Director Liz Goslin said the effort extends far beyond the 24-hour event, with year-round volunteers going weekly to the Children’s Hospital to connect with patients and families.
She said every kid co-captain at the event was someone who has benefited from Dance Marathon in some way.
Kathy Ellis dir , a Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities coordinator and a UNC alumna, said her son Jake was a kid co-captain for the fourth year in a row.
“He was born eight weeks early at UNC Hospitals,” she said.
“It’s neat to see college kids with such passion behind the fundraising. It makes me very proud to be a Tar Heel.”
Montpetit said her favorite part of Dance Marathon is getting to know committee members and dancers. She said she looks forward to seeing the moment when volunteers connect with the cause and really believe in it.
Goslin said there are volunteers that come in for three and six hour shifts during the event. They help with logistics and act as motivators for dancers.
“One of the reasons I love this organization so much is because it’s truly only successful because of the work the volunteers put into it every day,” she said. “We wouldn’t be who we are and where we are without them.”
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Kaitlyn Thomas , a 2013 UNC graduate who participated in Dance Marathon while at UNC, said the money raised is important because it is used to cover the small expenses that add up for parents; things like parking and meals.
“Just trying to bring a smile to the kids’ faces is really all it is,” she said. “ You see the co-captains here and they’re always so excited to dance with us, and it just makes all of us so happy.”
Freshman Claudia Lemon dir was a patient at the Children’s Hospital the summer before her senior year of high school. She said she appreciated the way the doctors and nurses interacted with their patients.
“They do everything they can to help ensure kids have as pain-free of a time as they can there, so I wanted to do what I could to do the same.”
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