Carmel Dance Marathon Wins 2023 Best High School Dance Marathon 

Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at the Dance Marathon Leadership Conference (DMLC) held in St. Louis, MO from August 3-6.

This year’s winner of Best High School Dance Marathon for a feeder program is Carmel Dance Marathon, a partner of Indiana University Dance Marathon!  

Carmel High School continuously excels in many facets of their program, including cause connection, as the program was founded in honor of Ashley Lousie Crouse who was a former Carmel student as well as an Executive Council member for IU Dance Marathon in 2005. Ashley tragically passed away in April 2005 and the following spring Carmel held their first dance marathon in her honor. Since then, they have used Ashley’s legacy to create a bond between all of the participants that join their program. Ashley’s story and legacy has become one of the educational components that is shared with Carmel students to create their first connection to Dance Marathon.  

This year, Carmel registered 619 students for their event. One of the ways they achieve such high levels of participant engagement is through their marketing and promotion of the event as a “can’t miss” event of the year. With a large student body, they work hard to emphasize the opportunity to get involved to freshman and stress how important the event is to the school. Their focus on freshman and retention of participants throughout their time as students has allowed them to grow their recruitment and dancer engagement over the years.  

Throughout the year Carmel Dance Marathon hosts a variety of community focused events such as a Runway for Riley (fashion show), Golf Outing, Race for Riley and more that brings the greater Carmel community together to support Riley Hospital for Children. These efforts resulted in a final fundraising total of over $614,000, an increase of $104,000 in just one year. Congratulations, Carmel High School! 

Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States and Canada that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. These students work tirelessly throughout the year to raise funds one dollar at a time by making the ask to family and friends. Their hard work culminates in a celebration on campus or virtually, where participants can rally together as a community for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in Dance Marathon gain valuable skills in fundraising, peer management, delegation, and philanthropy. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.