St. Ambrose University Dance Marathon Receives 2024 Mission Integration 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.  

Congratulations to St. Ambrose University Dance Marathon for their recognition as the winner of the 2024 Mission Integration Award. In the 2023–2024 school year funds raised by SAUDM directly benefited the Food for Families program at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.  

The Food for Families program provides $12 food vouchers to parents and family members at the hospital allowing them to purchase up to four meals per voucher at the hospital cafe. Knowing that almost every family who enters the hospital utilizes one of these vouchers during their stay, they knew that this could be a driving force for fundraising. Throughout the year they worked closely with thirteen families who had a direct and personal connection to the program – many of them sharing how the vouchers allowed them to focus on their child’s treatment without having to stress about where their next meal would come from.  

The Food for Families program provides $12 food vouchers to parents and family members at the hospital allowing them to purchase up to four meals per voucher at the hospital cafe. Knowing that almost every family who enters the hospital utilizes one of these vouchers during their stay, they knew that this could be a driving force for fundraising. Throughout the year they worked closely with thirteen families who had a direct and personal connection to the program – many of them sharing how the vouchers allowed them to focus on their child’s treatment without having to stress about where their next meal would come from.  

SAUDM made sure to draw parallels to their impact throughout their fundraising initiatives. During each of their all-dancer meetings they would recognize five individuals for how much they had fundraised, equating their total to the number of food vouchers contributed to the hospital. Through their efforts to connect participants and donors to the cause – sharing direct impact of fundraising dollars along the way SAUDM was able to fund over 16,000 meal vouchers, covering family and caregiver meals in the hospital for nearly ten months.  

Congratulations, St. Ambrose University Dance Marathon!  

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.