DANCE MARATHON!!!!!
 

I would just like to let all of you Greeks out there know that the University of Iowa has sucessfully completed it's 7th Dance Marathon!!! We partied 24 hours straight with no sleeping or sitting for the children of the pediatric onocology unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics!!! We raised.. drumroll please.... $504,2777!!
Over half of a million dollars.. hell yeah http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif
45 of my DZ sisters and I danced... raising about $10,000! I would like to give a huge shout out to the sisters of DELTA GAMMA who raised the most money for an organization... $31,000 from over 90 dancers! This is such a great cause and event, i hope all of your schools do dance marathon!

CONGRATULATIONS! THAT IS TRULY IMPRESSIVE!!!!!



------------------
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated...Every Finer Woman's Dream!

WOW! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif That is amazing! You should definately be proud!

Allie http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/tongue.gif

IowaHawkeye-

I am the co-chair of my school's (Ohio State) first dance marathon. We are working really hard on it, and if you have any ideas or tips for us, let me know, we need all the help we can get!!

XOGirl...
I am soooo excited to hear that your school is participating in this AWESOME event!!! It's so much fun and such a great cause. Here is the e-mail address of Iowa's Executive Director of Dance Marathon.. I know she would LOVE to help you out with any tips or ideas to make your Dance Marathon way sucessful. her name is Karla Lee and her address is... kjlee@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
hope this helps some.. and if you wants any tips from a dancer.. just let me know http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by IowaHawkeye (edited February 11, 2001).]

XOGirl.. make sure you keep me updated on your dance marathon http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!

BE OUT! MUCHAS CONGRATS AND MUCH RESPECT!

------------------
http://www.iun.edu/~sgr/sghrostickfigs.gif Rhoyal Blue and Gold...I LOVE my SGRho!

[This message has been edited by prettypoodle6 (edited February 14, 2001).]

most of you who know me, know i'm very involved in an organization on campus called DANCE MARATHON. basically, we raise money to help children with cancer. it is a cause that i care so much about and that i would do anything to further. Iowa's DM is this friday and saturday, february 1 at 7pm until saturday feb. 2 at 7pm. this is an article about one of the children we've tried to help - this weekend, please keep the children out there fighting for their lives, and those dancing to help save them, in your prayers. thanks :D


Remembering what they dance for


By Peter Rugg



The Daily Iowan



Laura Gaston doesn't feel right when she watches her daughter's friends growing up. It's "too surreal" for her when she sees how big they're getting and thinks about her daughter, Alex, who died more than a year ago.

"My life stopped when she died," said Gaston of her 7-year-old. "You don't want to be here anymore. This isn't part of the plan."

Gaston will be the last speaker at Dance Marathon, a fund-raising event for cancer victims to be held on Friday. This is her third year as a Dance Marathon family member.

When Alex was 5, her mother took her to the UI Hospitals and Clinics for a routine visit. During the examination, a lump was discovered on Alex's arm, and she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

"I never dreamed it was a tumor," Gaston said. "You just get smacked in the face with it, and you don't have time to feel sorry for yourself."

Only 15 days earlier, Alex's father, Calvin Gaston, had been diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system.

While Calvin Gaston eventually beat his illness with chemotherapy treatments -- he is now in remission -- his daughter's condition worsened.

After Laura Gaston watched her daughter's hair fall out because of chemotherapy, Alex slipped and broke her arm at the tumor. The arm was amputated on Sept. 27, 1998.

"The first time she saw her reflection in a window at the UIHC, she just said, 'I look disgusting,' " Laura Gaston said. "But she adapted to it so quickly. If people said anything or stared, they were usually adults. Adults were worse than children. Children are usually just curious."

After the amputation, Alex complained of "phantom pains" from the amputated arm. She described it as a tingling sensation, as if her arm had fallen asleep, said her mother.

Although Alex was an initially shy girl, Laura Gaston said, she was very secure in herself and outgoing, and she soon began educating people about cancer. She became involved with, and was crowned princess of, Relay for Life, a fund-raiser for cancer treatment, as well as with various other organizations.

She learned to write with her left hand and attended kindergarten when her health allowed, otherwise being tutored at home. She was devoted to her two dogs, cat, hamsters, and fish, and she planned to be a veterinarian someday.

"She loved animals very much," said her grandmother, Pat Bennet. "You couldn't even kill a bug around the house without her telling you not to do it."

Alex also became an honorary member of the Alpha Phi sorority, which sponsored her for the UI Dance Marathon. She missed the 1999 fund-raiser because of health problems, but she attended in 2000.

"She was so active," said UI graduate Sarah Abdo, the Alpha Phi chapter adviser. "She stayed up all night and danced with everyone. Meeting her was one of the high points of college."

Alex underwent several medical procedures between 1999 and 2000, including a surgery in which 11 tumors were removed from her lung. In April 2000, she entered remission, but a month later, a tumor was discovered on her bronchus. After her mother arranged for her to receive communion and baptism, Alex died at home on July 24, 2000.

"She knew what was happening, and she told me whom she wanted to give her toys to," said Laura Gaston. "The night she was dying, she wasn't scared. I was moving her pillow to make her more comfortable, and she looked up and said, 'Mommy, can I have my pillow back?' Those were her last words, but you could still hear that independence in her voice."

After Alex's death, Laura Gaston said, it was a struggle to find her place in society again. She is now clinical coordinator for UI Community Homecare, and she said she is still amazed by the children she's met who have cancer.

Afflicted children are some of the wisest people she's met, Bennet said.

"They go through hell, and they don't complain -- they keep smiling," she said.

A Rose for Nicole!
 

Nicole,
Your selflessness and that of your fellow Greek Hawkeyes will benefit many of society's less-fortunate members. You've made a positive difference in some lives, and you should be very, very proud! :)

Congratulations! That money will help so many children.

This past weekend Iowa held its 8th Annual Dance Marathon - we raised $519,990.70 - which is $15,000 higher than last year - oh yeah, we rock :)

They came, they saw, they danced



By Lauren Smiley




The Daily Iowan



Sunlight streams into a darkened ballroom littered with trampled cups and decorations. Four oversized fans diffuse the scent of 12 hours of frenetic dancing.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, the weary dancers are hitting the home stretch.

"There are highs and lows, but the last six hours are all high because you have the adrenaline pumping and you're almost there," says UI senior and five-time Dance Marathon participant Alex Bullock.

Approximately 900 UI undergraduates -- 100 more than last year -- danced from 7 p.m. Feb. 1 to 7 p.m. Feb. 2 in the eighth-annual Dance Marathon, a campaign to raise money for children with cancer and their families. This year's effort, held in the IMU Main Ballroom, raised a record $519,990.70 for 150 children treated at the UI Hospitals and Clinics. Last year's campaign raised $504,222.77.

A trial of endurance

Colorful dedication posters and a lit candle symbolizing children lost to cancer served as visual motivation for the dancers, who sacrificed sleep, showers, and sitting during the largest Children's Miracle Network-sponsored dance marathon in the United States.

"It's the longest I've been standing up and the longest I've been awake," said sophomore Allison Ford, adding that the secret to fighting exhaustion is to keep moving. "You just can't stop dancing."

Dressed in Mardi Gras beads and a lei, Ford said her energy waned when the families and their children, who danced alongside students, left for the night. Local band the Nadas, the Chicago-based MER, the UI Steel Drum Band, and an Alley Cat drag show enlivened the hours that followed.

The IMU's clocks were masked, and the dancers were banned from wearing watches. Although Ford followed that rule, she fudged another when her friends brought her a Coke in the wee hours of the morning.

"They smuggled it in," she said, laughing. "I don't think we're supposed to have caffeine."

Relief for tired soles

Jumbo bottles of lotion and baby powder were strewn about tables and chairs in a make-shift massage lounge adjoining the pulsating ballroom. There, dancers made unlimited return trips for foot rubs from volunteers.

"It feels great after you've been dancing for so long, especially because you get the chance to sit down," said UI freshman Heidi Blake, who received two foot rubs. "You go through a lot in 24 hours."

His head circled in faux ivy, Ron Irlmeier of Manning, Iowa, massaged feet continuously for more than 10 hours.

"I've been on my butt for a long time," said the father of an 11-year-old cancer survivor.

His daughter, Laura Irlmeier, gathered up bottles nearby. They attended the first marathon eight years ago, when Laura was in remission from cancer. Ron Irlmeier has been relieving feet at the event ever since.

"This is the way I can pay back the dancers for what they do," he said, adding that dancers return to him for massages year after year. "I always build their confidence up, saying they are raising money for a charitable cause. And then I say, 'Now go out there and dance.' "

A battle till the end

The dancing stopped at 6 p.m. For the five-year veteran Bullock, the closing hour is "one of those great experiences in life." Several dancers shed tears as they watched a tribute video for the children who lost their battle with cancer. The dancers sang "Angels Among Us" as they swayed in a human chain lining the room.

"You feel sad for what they've lost but still great because you're helping them," Bullock said.

As she sat for the first time to watch the video, junior Evelena Ornelas said the end of Dance Marathon brought personal vindication.

"It's physical relief, but more of a sense of accomplishment on the inside by knowing we didn't just donate money to a cause but survived a test of endurance -- something these children have to face everyday," she said.

Way to go Hawkeyes!! GREAT job!!!