HoyaTHON at Georgetown University Receives National Best New Dance Marathon Award
HoyaTHON at Georgetown University was recently recognized as the Best New Dance Marathon at the Miracle Network Dance Marathon Leadership Conference in July. The Best New Dance Marathon Award recognizes a Miracle Network Dance Marathon organization that hosted its first or second Dance Marathon event in the 2018-2019 academic year and is chosen based on a combination of fundraising success, year-round programming, and Dance Marathon event execution.
The student leaders recruited a diversified executive board in order to maximize HoyaTHON’s reach as a club. Executive members had connections to almost every other major organization, while also creating a master spreadsheet with different clubs at Georgetown. Registered clubs used DonorDrive to see their ranking, which motivated them to increase fundraising efforts. They also adapted Dance Marathon to their campus’s culture, planning a 12-hour Dance Marathon event during their day when they knew more students would be able to participate.
HoyaTHON knew they had to develop a marketing plan to make the biggest campus on their campus including, handing out miracle bracelets, as well as partnering with the largest student organization on their campus. Their organization set a goal of registering 120 participants for their first year and ended up registering 243 participants. Callia Karas says, “Of course our purpose is not just to raise money, but also to raise awareness.”
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HoyaTHON saw the need to not just raise money but to also raise awareness of their mission to child health. One way they raised awareness within their community is putting on an event called “Ask Carsten.” As a child Carsten was treated at Children’s National for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, he told his story and why Dance Marathon is important to himself and his family. Following the event, HoyaTHON displayed Carsten’s banner at tabling. HoyaTHON encouraged people with personal experiences at a CMN Hospital to tell their story while hosting four Miracle Families at their Big Event. Making the cause-connection relevant was important to HoyaTHON.
At the beginning of their year, the organization set the fundraising goal of $20,000 for their inaugural year. By engaging students from across campus and inspiring individual participants to fundraise they were able to more than double that goal, raising $42,836.23 for the kids at their local children’s hospital.
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across North America that fundraise for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since its inception in 1991, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $250 million–ensuring that no child or family fights pediatric illness or injury alone.
Learn more about Miracle Network Dance Marathon: