USC Dance Marathon students hosted the Day of Miracles event to raise money for Prisma Health Hospital’s child life program on Tuesday.
“Our campaign is 'More Than' and so today we are saying today is more than a day because this is a big fundraising day for kids and for them this is more than a miracle,” second-year environmental science student Emma Sievers said.
There were multiple stations to visit including an information station, a card-making station, a merchandise station, a check-in table, fundraising incentives and Carolina Cafe bagels. Each of the stations informed college students on the organization and its efforts and encouraged them to get involved.
Fourth-year public relations student Tori Canada said this is a “push” day where members of Dance Marathon encourage their friends, family and classmates to donate money towards the cause. Many different groups on and off campus get involved in fundraising, which is why they were able to raise over one million dollars last year.
“We actually are also engaging our high schools around Columbia and they are doing fundraising push days,” Canada said.
Third-year elementary education student Drew Blocker said this is a new way to encourage organizations to get involved as well as use the on-campus groups that already participate in Dance Marathon.
“It's set up in a bracket of sorts where different organizations of different sizes basically compete against each other to get points by coming to different Dance Marathon events," Blocker said. "It's something really cool that we hope to keep throughout the rest of this year and, you know, foster those relationships and have stronger teams in the coming years too."
The event was supposed to be held on Greene Street but moved to Russell House Ballroom this year due to the rain.
“As it kept on going on, we would have the miracle families come in and I think that has really made my 'why' a lot stronger to be able to hear these people and hear stories and how much dance marathon truly does make an impact on their lives,” Sievers said.