UDance attracts more than 2,000 participants, raises $112k

In what was more than just a 12-hour dance marathon, loud music blared and beach balls bounced Sunday at the Delaware Field House to raise money for cancer and pediatric AIDS.


The event raised $112,000 — surpassing the $100,000 goal organizers had set earlier in the year and more than doubling the sum of the previous three years.

UDance is similar to the style of Pennsylvania State University's "Thon" event in which people and businesses can contribute money to groups or teams of people. Each team must have members present at all times for the event's duration and they must be dancing as well.


The money raised this year is being donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, founded by Andrew's sister, Ali McDonough, a sophomore at the university. Over the past three years, UDance has donated more than $50,000 according to its Web site.

More than 2,000 people attended the event this year.


Matt Lenno, assistant director of Greek life, attributed much of the success to the strength of Greek life on campus and the hard work the organizers put in for the event.


"It takes about a year worth of planning," Lenno stated in an e-mail message. As soon as UDance was over last year, the students began planning for this year. It is an incredible undertaking. It is a group effort from all 44 chapters."


 He said last year Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon wanted to expand the UDance event to include all of Greek Life, so university Greek Life adopted UDance as its premier philanthropic event.


Wilson said the event was created by an Alpha Epsilon Phi alumni, Jessica Forman, four years ago. Forman still attends the event and was present on Sunday. For several years, it was restricted to Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Epsilon Phi. Executive coordinators Jason Mercandetti and Katie Wilson, both seniors, stressed the fact that it was not simply an event for Greek Life. This year, they strived to include more groups around campus outside of fraternities and sororities.


"This year it's been a full 12 months of working with the different RSOs and the Greek Chapters," Mercandetti said. "So the event has grown exponentially over the last 12 months."


Some teams that participated in UDance  included the football, lacrosse, and soccer teams. Groups of freshman, members of the Student Government Association and the Indian Students Association all represented other teams. The Indian Students Association named UDance as their official charity of the year according to Wilson.


Throughout the course of the day, there were several events and performances organized. Mercandetti and Wilson said that they had competitions such as a hot dog eating contest and a limbo contest. There were also performances artists Jefe and Jared Weintraub.

Maintaining a tight schedule for these events took a great deal of coordination, they said.

"We had it scheduled down to every 15 minutes," Wilson said.


Mecandetti said an important and fulfilling aspect of the event is the heroes program, which pairs up a child from the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation with a team. According to Wilson, every organization that took part in the heroes program came early to the event and made a banner for the child. These banners were hung up around the Field House and the organizations that participated in this program received a plaque.


"They end up welcoming the child with open arms into their RSO or Greek chapter and the child really feels like one [of them]," said Mecandetti.


Sophomore Kate Maloney is a member of the Phi Sigma Pi Fraternity. She said that she is amazed at the size of the event, especially the large growth of the past two years. Maloney volunteered to be one of the members of the fraternity that stayed for the entire duration of the event.

She said the program caused her teammates to be more motivated to raise money.


"It makes it so personal," Maloney said. "You're really giving to these families, you're not giving to a big corporate organization where you're not going to see the money. These people are being directly helped."