By Katelyn Norris
Bellarmine University Dance Marathon held another successful all-nighter with its other worldly fundraising success.
On Friday, Jan. 22 BUDM raised $25,301.13 for the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Norton’s Children Hospital. With the help of several BU students and staff, the students behind the event made the night an amazing success despite Covid-19 restrictions.
Senior Madisen Sullivan said the whole event was nice memory of her senior year. She said she is sad she will not able to come and experience the fundraising reveal again.
“I’m super excited that we were able to raise over $25,000 during my last year at BU,” Sullivan said.
Dean of Students, Dr. Sean McGreevey opened the event to remind the attendees that all who they were “doing this for the kids.” From 6 p.m. to midnight, students raised funds, played games and danced the night away.
For many students on the BUDM Executive Board, it was a highly emotional night. Senior Sam Lydon, BUDM student director, was in tears by the end of the event.
“I’m proud. I am so proud of everyone here tonight. They have fundraised harder than group I have seen,” Lydon said.
Lydon said she is always moved to see the BU community care about this cause. She also said this year’s event was special because a group of 50 students did what a normal group of 200 students could do.
Senior Caroline Cross said she also was surprised at the amount such a small group raised.
“This was only my second dance marathon, but it was so fun, and it is worth all of the hype we give it. I like when we are able to come together and dance for a cause,” Cross said.
Some highlights of the night were the fundraising game that included taping members of the BUDM team and a student to a tarp to race. Every piece of tape placed on the student it was 50 cents and was increased to $1 at the end of the game. This game was an effort to quickly raise funds and while also having good time.
This was Lydon’s first year participating in being taped to the tarp. She said it was one of her favorite moments of the night along with the fundraising total reveal.
Another fundraising game occurred when the team played the “Little Einsteins” theme song for six minutes. Junior Shelby Allen announced that they would stop playing the song when they had $600 or reached the time limit. However, in under 3 minutes dancers raised more than $1,000.
Lydon said she has always loved BUDM from the moment she joined it and this year was a bittersweet moment for her. However, she said moving forward she hopes this event will continue to be a BU tradition.
“Over the past three years, I have worked hard to make sure that tradition stayed alive and keep it going,” Lydon said. “ I just hope that next year BUDM gets all the participants engaged and involved in fundraising and gets everyone connected to the community to continue the BU tradition.”