Correction appended.
About 400 dancers filled Baker Ballroom on Saturday, decked out from head to toe in tutus, sunglasses, beaded necklaces and bandannas, all in their specific team’s color. Though the swarm of dancers appeared to be an unusual sight at first, they were all working together for one extraordinary purpose: BobcaThon.
BobcaThon is a 12-hour dance marathon celebrating the end of a year’s work to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio.
BobcaThon 2020 is the 6th year the event has taken place. The event has raised more than $343,000 to donate to RMHC of Central Ohio in its first five years.
While the organization’s goal was only to raise $116,000 this year, it ended up surpassing that total and raising $117,012.08.
The day was filled with exciting events for the participants, including a silent disco, life-size board games and themed hours like the Disney hour, 7th inning stretch hour, decades hour and Surfin’ FTK (For The Kids). On top of the dances, there were also performances from groups like the Ohio University cheerleading team and OU Vibrations.
Not only were children involved with the participants, running and dancing with the OU students, but families supported by the RMHC came to give speeches about their experiences and how RMCH helped them throughout a difficult time.
Jessica Rutkowski, a senior studying strategic communication, was the vice president of external affairs. She helped explore the outreach aspects of BobcaThon, as well as lead a media team that worked on branding and social media for the event.
Rutkowski loved seeing people participate in BobcaThon because they were taking an opportunity to help people in need and provide some service, rather than just focusing on the personal responsibilities each student has throughout college.
“It gives students an opportunity to go outside of themselves and be involved in something that’s bigger than themselves,” Rutkowski said. “BobcaThon gives all students an opportunity to see how to serve the world in a really fun way that’s really engaging and exciting for students to do.”
Each team is complete with a morale captain, who acts as the team liaison throughout the day. Be it questions, concerns or just a need for a pick me up, morale captains work hard to hype up their teams.
Kayla McNeal, a senior studying strategic communication, was the director of morale and helped each individual captain motivate their team. Not only is BobcaThon her favorite part about OU, but it has opened a lot of doors for her.
“It shaped what I want to do with my degree and helped me realize that I can contribute to something that is so much bigger than myself and have so much fun while doing it,” McNeal said.
BobcaThon has high attendance from all sorts of different groups, but especially from OU Greek Life. The event has many different ways of raising money, including a new and accessible form of transaction: Venmo. After using Venmo for the past three BobcaThon fundraisers, Rutkowski believes it contributes heavily to the amount of money raised because of how easy it is for students to contribute their money through the online banking service.
More than anything, both McNeal and Rutkowski agree that BobcaThon is the reason they stayed at OU and fell in love with it. Their experiences through BobcaThon have brought them their best friends, eased their transitions into OU and created a joyful experience through the mutual reason of service.
The same goes for Maggie Wolf, a senior studying communication studies, who was the president of BobcaThon 2020 and was thrilled to lead a team of students that she’s so passionate about while giving back to Athens.
“I think BobcaThon is important because as a student here, OU and the Athens community give us so much in the four years we’re here, and we need to give back to them,” Wolf said. “I think BobcaThon is the perfect way to do that as a student.”
Correction: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated the name of the event and the name of Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
