180 students danced for 12 hours Saturday to raise money for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Central Ohio.
While couples around the world celebrated their love this weekend, a group of students took that time to celebrate a different kind of love — the love of giving.
About 180 students gathered in Baker Center Ballroom on Saturday for the second-annual BobcaThon, a year-long fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio that culminates in a 12-hour dance marathon. The theme for this year’s event was “Dancing Through the Decades" and raised more than $40,000.
Last year’s event raised more than $18,000, and the staff members hoped to double that amount with this year’s marathon. By the start of the dance marathon, they had already raised $30,000, and events such as silent auctions, raffles, cake walks and donations to students’ fundraising pages throughout the day brought in even more money — enough to surpass their goal, with a final total at $40,473.01.
Members of the BobcaThon staff held up signs revealing the grand total, and the room erupted with cheers as the dancers cried and embraced their teammates, many of whom had been total strangers 12 hours earlier.
Although the money from the event will go to the Ronald McDonald House in Columbus, families in Athens County also will benefit from the event.
“Since BobcaThon started (in 2014), over 2,000 nights have been stayed by families in Athens County at the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio. The average donation for a family in Athens County is $2.84 a night, but it costs Ronald McDonald House $100 a night to be able to provide care for them,” Katrina Heilmeier, president adviser for BobcaThon and Ohio University's associate director of campus relations, said.
The total amount raised means the Ronald McDonald House in Columbus will be able to provide for more than 400 nights of stays.
Families who had stayed in the Ronald McDonald House spoke every hour. One of those families may have looked familiar to some students — it was the family of Brittany Peterson, an assistant professor of communication studies.
The Petersons have used the Ronald McDonald House twice — once when daughter Prayli, age 2, was born prematurely and spent three weeks in the neonatal intensive-care unit at Nationwide Children’s, and again last summer.
“In August, we found out — it was a surprise — we found out she had a throat condition where her trachea is too narrow,” Peterson said.
Prayli had to undergo surgery to widen her trachea. After that she was hospitalized for almost four weeks. In that time, she also was intubated and placed in a drug-induced coma for about one week.
For Peterson, her husband Steve and their 4-year-old son Pax, the Ronald McDonald House not only erased the commute from Athens to Columbus, but also allowed for a closer support system of family and friends.
“I spent most of my time in the hospital, but our family, friends, babysitters and extended family came from Wisconsin and stayed at the Ronald McDonald House," Peterson said. "We live in Athens, so it was just such a blessing to be able to have that space.”
Meg Sanders, a senior studying child and family studies and the president of BobcaThon, also had an interest in the success of the event.
“I am a pediatric cancer patient, so my family has been in and out of hospitalization through my younger years," Sanders said. "It’s really just affected my appreciation and love for families that have hospitalized children and all the accommodations and great things that we are able to provide for them through causes like this."
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For Sanders and the 180 dancers present, however, the purpose of the event was not solely for the dollar amount. As the students chanted numerous times throughout the night, it was “for the kids."
“These kids feel like rockstars when they’re here, and that’s what we want to do," Sanders said.
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