This Friday night, more than 300 students will experience the “Dance Marathon Fever.” Dance Marathon events are held on college campuses nationwide, and student participants are sponsored to dance for hours in order to raise funds for Children’s Miracle Network. Georgia Tech’s 9th annual will be a six-hour event open to all of the Tech community and will feature giveaways, personal testimonies, a moon bounce and games, as well as choreographed dance lessons from executive board members.

GT For the Kids (GT FTK) is the student-run organization that plans Georgia Tech’s Dance Marathon. The group’s mission is to spread awareness while fundraising for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a Children’s Miracle Network subisdiary.

Dance Marathon is the culminating event of GT For the Kids. Members raise founds throughout the year by selling koozies and holding frozen yogurt nights, but Dance Marathon event sponsors and donors contribute most to fundraising. This year, GT FTK kicked off a new corporate sponsorship program, allowing them to partner with companies and showcase them at the event. This addition will assist in aiming closer to the group’s fundraising goal of $50,000. Last year, Dance Marathon raised $36,114.71.

Rachel Doctor, a fourth-year business administration major and GT FTK internal vice president, stated that her favorite part of Dance Marathon has been meeting the families touched by Children’s Miracle Network.

“It is so inspiring to hear all that they have gone through and makes you just want to give everything that you can to help out these families and others like them,” Doctor said.

Dance Marathon is not the only opportunity for the organization to interact with these families and see the benefits of their hardwork and fundraising.

“Being in Atlanta, we have three children's hospitals very close to us,” said Steven LaBrecque, a fourth-year industrial engineering major and GT FTK executive director. “This gives us the unique opportunity to see the results of our efforts in action. We try to plan multiple hospital visits every year to allow people to see how much their hard work has helped children.”

Each participant receives a t-shirt, blanket, cup, free food and raffle tickets for prizes. Prizes include gift cards and items from Victoria’s Secret, Southern Tide and Figo, as well as a football signed by Georgia Tech Football Coach Paul Johnson. Students are invited to visit the website and register to celebrate “For the Kids!”

Performances include:

• Seven Handle Circus
• Strangi Dance Team (from America’s Got Talent)
• Magicians @ GT
• Gold Rush Dance Team
• DJ Peter Pollack
• Kruti Dance Academy