DemonTHON is a year-long fundraising organization at DePaul University, benefiting Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago located in the heart of downtown right off of the Magnificent Mile. My final year at DePaul, I was blessed to be a part of this amazing organization's executive board, and we worked from April 2011-April 2012 to build the event from scratch. We held recruitment events, co-hosted basketball games with some of the families from the hospital, and performed flash mob dances around campus to let everyone what DemonTHON was! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On April 20, 2012, over 200 dancers stood for 24 hours as the culminating event of the year. Miracle families came and told their stories, and there were contests, entertainment, and lots of dancing! At the end of the event, everyone in the gym did the final "morale dance" (done every hour to keep energy levels high) as we watched the final fundraising total climb. The record for a first-year dance marathon was $65,995, and our goal was to beat that number. When the ticker surpassed $50,000, everyone screamed! As soon as it passed $66,000, we knew we had made history, and everyone started crying and jumping up and down. And then to everyone's surprise, it kept going....and going.... Eventually the ticker stopped at $103,700.28- the most money EVER raised by a dance marathon in the country! The feeling of accomplishment, surprise, and elation was overwhelming as everyone hugged and cried together. It was definitely a moment I will never forget, and I am extremely proud to have been a part of it!