thePULSEBy Cristal Steuer
Holy Cross students participated in a 12-hour, overnight dance marathon in January and raised $23,860.08 for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). The number, which is expected to grow since donations are still coming in, exceeded organizers’ expectations. Participants were required to raise a minimum of $100, with the goal for the marathon set at $10,000.
“We had 138 dancers raise money and participate in the marathon. In addition, we had about 40 people cheering us on throughout the night and into the morning,” says Linsey Barker ’12, one of the event organizers. “The energy in the room was electric.”
The theme of the dance marathon was “Jump Around the World.” “Every hour featured a different region of the world with different types of music, activities, and multicultural group performances to keep dancers awake and energized; we even brought in professional belly dancers for the Middle Eastern hour,” says Barker.
At the beginning of the night, the Holy Cross Dance Team taught all participants a morale dance to the song “Jump for my Love” by the Pointer Sisters. “We performed the dance regularly throughout the event as a way to keep the morale up,” shares Barker. “The most exciting moment of the event was when we revealed our grand total and more than doubled our goal!”
Barker says the EGPAF is an incredible foundation that is working hard to eliminate AIDS worldwide. “The money raised by Holy Cross students will be well spent at the EGPAF because they use the money to provide people with the medication and education that they need to prevent HIV/AIDS from spreading and stop it from developing,” explains Barker.
Anyone interested in donating can contact Linsey Barker at lebark12@g.holycross.edu.
