2008 Woodie Awards
Cutting the rug for charity and fun
by Maggie Schiller
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: Mosaic
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At 11 a.m., with the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner," the first ever UDANCE marathon began. For 12 hours the participants freeze danced, did the Cotton-Eyed Joe and limbo-ed all the way to raise more than $8,000 to support the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Hosted by Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, the event attracted approximately 300 students to Trabant for a day of dancing, games and performances by various school organizations.
Among these groups were the Delaware Reparatory Dance Committee, the Swing Dance Club, the Delaware Dance Team and several acoustic performances, a cappella groups and DJs.
Alongside the stage was a rest area loaded with snacks, water and energy drinks to keep the participants fueled throughout the day.
Games such as Four Square, Coke and Pepsi and Simon Says broke up the dancing and allowed students to mingle with each other.
Lauren McNerney, a junior and Delta Gamma member, says she felt the activities helped bring different groups together.
"I think it's a great cause because they are not only raising a lot of money, but they are getting people involved," McNerney says. "A lot of people from fraternities and sororities came here. All the different acts that came out today to perform really got everyone going."
Marc Zamarin, a freshman in SigEp, says the idea of the marathon was based off the event "Thon" that takes place at Pennsylvania State University every year and raises millions of dollars.
"Penn State has set the standard, there is no reason an event like that can't work here," Zamarin said.
Senior Jessica Forman, a member of AEPhi, says she came up with the idea when she decided the girls in her sorority should take part in a more involved philanthropy than they had in the past.
"I wanted to do something other than have people write checks for all of us to run a 5K," Forman says. "I knew other schools did something like this and didn't understand why we didn't."
Prior to the event, members of the two chapters took after the Penn State tradition of canning and stood on street corners around Newark to raise money.
Sophomore Ricky Hopp, a member of SigEp, says the chapters were able to raise approximately $800 and receive a few corporate donations from canning alone.
Zamarin says the group is hoping that larger companies will say they want to get involved down the road.
"If we can get bigger names in the future, it will increase the popularity and the quality because in reality, the more money you have the more you can do," he says. "We want to make it an even bigger event. The possibilities are endless."
Although it was the first year, Forman says they are pleased with the turnout.
"It is pretty much what we expected for the first time," she says. "Now it is what we can take from it and what can we do next year to revamp and make it better."
Although most of the participants this year were from Greek Life and other RSOs, Hopp says the most important goal was getting the name out there to students.
"We want people to be like, 'Oh, UDANCE, I've heard of that,' for people who don't even go here," he said. "That is a high-aspiring goal but we feel that if we continue to put the work into it people will start to recognize it."
Along with raising money and increasing school spirit, Zamarin says he hopes the event is a good way to reach out and prove to the school and Newark that the Greek community does positive things for which they don't always get recognized.
"We want to break down the stereotype that Greeks are only concerned with Greeks," he says. "The problem is that people think we are just a social club that hangs out on weekends. We want to reach out to different RSOs on campus and bring the school together more."
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handy manny
posted 5/25/08 @ 7:35 PM EST
that sara davidson is terrible at taking pictures
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