Katherine Castellano
Contributing Writer
UD Miracle hosted its 20th annual Flyerthon on Feb. 16 in Kennedy Union ballroom and raised a record breaking $75,579 to donate to Dayton Children’s Hospital.
Flyerthon is a thirteen-hour dance marathon where participants dance throughout the day, while raising money to help sick and injured kids in the local community get the support they need. This event is one of many hosted by UD Miracle, which is a nationally recognized movement that raises funds and awareness for children at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
There were 346 Dayton Flyers who participated in this year’s event made up of 21 teams.
With their determination to help children fighting illnesses, Flyerthon strived to reach their goal of $60,000 and well surpassed it. As Lucas Sadenwater, director of operations, said, “we shattered our expectations.” Participants used a wide variety of social media platforms this year to raise money for the cause.
Aubrey Woolf, the family relations chair for UD Miracle, said they have always used Facebook to reach out to family and friends. This year they also utilized Instagram in which they used “Bingo boards” to encourage donations.
“With bingo boards on Instagram, people would donate money through Venmo which go to a person’s donor drive account and then fill in different spaces such as $1 and $5 spaces, so we all tried to fill out as many boards and bingos as we could,” Woolf said.
By utilizing different forms of social media, Woolf said that, “marketing did a great job of really getting our name out on campus this year.”
“As an organization, we have been building momentum for years, with each year being more successful than the last,” Sadenwater said. “This year we were able to get so many students involved with the cause which allowed us to have our most successful year ever.”
The money raised by students will stay local and will fund, “critical treatments, healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care,” according to the UD Miracle website.
University of Dayton is one of more than 300 schools that host Miracle Dance Marathons. Each school that participates in this nationwide event uses their school identification with “thon” in its title. Although each of these schools has their own unique title, they all carry the same purpose to do something about childhood illnesses.
“We are one generation fighting for the next,” states the UD Miracle website.
Along with Flyerthon, UD Miracle also hosts many other events during the school year including a Bill’s Not-So-Fit 5k and a Hot Dog Hotline. However, Flyerthon is the final and biggest event of the year for the organization.
For each of these schools, this event leaves a lasting impression on students.
“[The goal] is to take away that this something bigger than themselves, and that they truly make a difference in the lives of the kids at Dayton Children’s,” Sadenwater said. “Each dollar and dancer at Flyerthon has the chance to change a child’s life, and we hope that students realize the impact they can have.”
Through the hard work of participants, Flyerthon 2019 was a major success as students were able to impact the lives of young children and raise funds to help support them in their fight against illnesses.
Photos taken from the UD Miracle Facebook Page.