Taylor Dietrich’s face lights up when she talks about the kids.
Whether it’s 11-year-old Keldon Hemingway or little Lila Monzinga, she beams when she brings them up. And for good reason.
The kids she talks about are Miracle Children, patients at Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital. They’re the same kids whose treatments are partially funded by the money raised by USC Dance Marathon.
“They’ve been dealt a really bad hand,” she said. “Out of anyone, those kids do not deserve it.”
So as overall director of USCDM, Dietrich made it her mission to do whatever she can to stack the deck in the kids’ favor.
Hooked on miracles
Dietrich stumbled upon USC Dance Marathon in the same place many students find their homes away from home at USC: on Greene Street.
She was always big on philanthropy and community service, so once she saw the words “miracle” and “for the kids” on a table at the organization fair, she was hooked.
She registered as a dancer with a group of friends from her dorm and got excited to dance all day and all night for the kids.
But the day before her first Dance Marathon, Dietrich was admitted to the children’s hospital herself.
It was there that she saw firsthand what the money raised by USCDM went to.
“I got to see the tremendous care there,” she said. “Being able to give back to that and rally behind the fact that we’re ensuring these kids have the best care locally is something that’s really wonderful.”
Dietrich, a fifth-year public health student, immersed herself in the world of Dance Marathon and climbed the ranks over the years, eventually becoming overall director last year.
But before she assumed the organization’s top spot, Dietrich tried her hand at just about every aspect of Dance Marathon, from the morale team to the executive board.
Last year, she kept dancers motivated for 24 hours as head morale captain, alongside Student Body President Chase Mizzell, but this year, she did not don a microphone or lead the 13-minute line dance.
“This year jumping from the morale side to planning the entire event, you plan for the whole thing, you get there and it’s really just your time to take it in,” she said. “I prepared all year, and it came down to those 24 hours, and I was like, ‘What am I supposed to be doing?’”
Success merits support
Before the big day, Dietrich met with members of the university’s faculty, staff and administration to get a feel for how well they understood the organization and talk about ways to get involved. But most importantly, she wanted to gather university support for the cause, something she said campus philanthropic organizations could use some more of.
“Being a USC student organization of the stature that we are and with everything we do, it’s something that the university needs to — and I want them to — take pride in,” she said.
With the internal success the executive board has seen this past year, Dietrich said, there is nothing but accomplishment on the horizon for the organization as a whole.
This was the first year all the board members met their minimum fundraising goals, a testament to the organization’s accountability and “one team, one dream” outlook, she said.
“As the leaders, we can’t have everyone else do it if we don’t do it ourselves,” she said. “There’s not downtime with Dance Marathon. These kids don’t ever get a day off from their fight, and as people providing them with hope, we can’t take a day off either.”
‘It will always be there’
Dietrich turned her motto for life into her motto for USCDM: Commit to a cause, and execute a plan.
She raised $8,700 for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals this year. Her initial goal was $5,000, double what she raised in 2013, but she broke the $5,000 mark with time to spare before the main event.
That’s when she upped it to $10,000, which she was just shy of reaching by the end of this year’s marathon.
“Obviously, I was disappointed I didn’t hit my goal, but this entire experience has been everything and more than I could have ever dreamed, so there’s really no disappointment,” she said.
But here’s the thing: Dietrich doesn’t have a personal story about Dance Marathon. She didn’t know any of the doctors before she signed up that first year. She hadn’t volunteered at the hospital. She had never met any of the kids whose lives she would one day change.
“I know, I’m a freak of nature because I have no personal connection, but there’s something about this that I just cannot let go,” she said. “It will always be there.”
And she doesn’t have a favorite memory either. But that’s only because she can’t narrow it down to one single best.
Over the course of the year, if the planning got stressful or she was just feeling overwhelmed, Dietrich would drive to the hospital, her “safe haven.”
Oftentimes, she wouldn’t go inside; she’d just sit in the parking lot to reflect.
And on the morning of her final Dance Marathon at USC, that’s where she went.
“I went Saturday morning, and I was like, ‘This is it. It’s all going right there. We do this for this place,’” she said. “I knew I would go Saturday morning. It was the last thing I wanted to do before I went to Strom.”
Forever FTK
This is Dietrich’s final year at USC, and she’s looking forward to becoming a USCDM alumnus in a few short months.
She’ll graduate in May, but by no means is Dietrich finished with Dance Marathon.
Not by a long shot.
She’s applying to work for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital youth market team, which encompasses the entire Dance Marathon program.
“I can’t stop now. I want to keep going,” she said. “My hands are not finished with Dance Marathon.”
Dietrich isn’t nervous about leaving USCDM in the hands of her teammates when she leaves.
She’s more worried about what she’ll do when she leaves.
“This has been everything that I’ve ever wanted, and everything that we worked toward has come and passed,” she said. “But there is still so much more that we can contribute in years to come.”
Dietrich knows the people she’ll leave behind will grow USCDM and take it to new heights, especially with the momentum the organization has gained in years past.
It’s a bittersweet feeling, she said, to leave the organization she has poured herself into for the last few years, but knowing she’s leaving it with people she knows are capable.
“I’m kind of in limbo,” she said. “I came, I did, I conquered, and now we’re preparing that next group to feel that way, saying, ‘This is yours now. Whatever you do is going to make it or break it.’”
‘Now it’s factual’
USCDM raised $318,649 this year, the highest total in the last 15 years. Aside from the advisers, no one knew what the fundraising total cards would say when they were flipped over at noon on Sunday, including Dietrich.
Dietrich said USCDM adviser Jami Campbell cut her off from checking the fundraising website, DonorDrive, a week and a half before the big day.
“I knew what I wanted. I wanted to break $300,000,” she said. “But I had no idea what that number would be.”
It wasn’t until the final moments of her final collegiate Dance Marathon that she saw the numbers that exceeded her expectations.
The moment the cards were flipped, and USCDM history was made, Dietrich cried, hugged and screamed. But a few days later, just days after her final USCDM, Dietrich seemed relatively at peace, but it wasn’t because she wasn’t feeling anything.
“I’m a very emotional person when it comes to talking about things like this,” she said, “but there are so many emotions inside of me right now that my body doesn’t know how to release them.”
And with the shock worn off and her emotions at bay, Dietrich’s sense of accomplishment and pride in her organization was evident in her wide smile.
“It’s still so emotional, but now it’s factual,” she said. “We did it.”
Editor’s note: News Editor Hannah Jeffrey was formerly a member of the Dance Marathon morale team.