Pitt Dance Marathon at the University of Pittsburgh Receives 2024 Marathon Programming Award
Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ Ignite: Peer-to-Peer Leadership Conference held in Kansas City, MO from July 18-21.
Pitt Dance Marathon is recognized as the winner of the 2024 Marathon Programming Award! Pitt Dance Marathon earned this distinction through their intentional event planning and execution that focused on participants experience. Through this dedicated focus on building an event that resonated with their campus, they saw increased registration and in-event fundraising.
The first major change this year after hearing participant feedback Pitt Dance Marathon cut their traditional 12-hour event down to 10 hours. This allowed them to jam-pack the event with the most engaging and exciting activities for all participants, adding new activities such as our “last man standing” cotton-eyed joe competition to boost event participation!
They included two sessions of silent disco into marathon programming, capitalizing on the success of this engaging event in the previous year. Typically, event participants attend the event for one of two, or both “shifts” and having two silent discos allowed each “shift” to engage with a crowd-favorite event, plus the morale team was even able to perform the morale dance utilizing the headphones!
Additionally, Pitt Dance Marathon utilized newly established “color wars” system to encourage friendly competition between participants. Under this system, participants were divided into teams that competed for points throughout the event by participating in various activities.
Altogether, the changes implemented this year allowed Pitt Dance Marathon to create their most engaging and exciting event possible. Participant feedback at the event was that this was the “greatest and most engaging Dance Marathon they’d been to in their four years of attending the event!”
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a national movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in a campus’s dance marathon organization spend a year gaining leadership, teamwork, and nonprofit business experience while raising funds and awareness for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. The year culminates with a final dance marathon event on each campus, where students get to meet patient families treated at their local hospital, participate in games and dancing, enjoy entertainment, and reveal their annual fundraising total. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.