More than 1,000 college students are expected to have their faces painted, dress in party costumes and dance around their school gymnasium floor for the Miracle at Kennesaw State Dance Marathon.
The March 2 event will be held onthe Kennesaw campus.
The day is the culmination of students’ yearlong fundraising activities for the Children’s Miracle Network and member hospital, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
“It’s a 12-hour event,” said sophomore Sydney Bartlett, sorority team leader for Delta Phi Epsilon. “We have games and 10-minute dance team competitions every hour. Also we have [patient] families with their children, who will explain how the hospital changed their life.”
“Any fundraising done in the Atlanta market directly benefits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta,” said Lydia George, the network program director at CHOA. “Fundraising through Miracle at Kennesaw State, and Walmart or Publix, where they ask people if they want to donate to the Children’s Miracle Network, it goes to CHOA.”
Much of the fundraising by KSU students has been done through social media. Students have set up templates in their social media stories to facilitate $50 and $75 donations during the March 2 event, said Bartlett, who trains fellow students in fundraising methods.
“This is the 11th year of KSU fundraising,” the public relations major said. “If we raise $279,762, we will have raised $1 million in total.”
Donations will help complete funding of CHOA’s Center for Advanced Pediatrics. The 260,000-square-foot outpatient facility opened last July in Brookhaven.
“When you think about how a lot of outpatients that have complex care have to go to different locations,” said George. “This [location] is so they don’t have to worry about that. All the specialists are under one roof.”
Bartlett has been enlightened by the fundraising efforts since she participated in her first Miracle dance marathon in 2018. “It touched me that a bunch of students at a university could do this,” she said. “I saw how families’ lives could be altered.”
More details: Miracle at Kennesaw State Dance Marathon. Noon to midnight, March 2. Multi-Activity Court, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw. miracleatksu.org/home, choa.childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org,
Each Sunday we write about a deserving person or charity events such as fun-runs, volunteer projects and other community gatherings that benefit a good cause. To submit a story for us to cover, email us at ajc.doinggood@gmail.com
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