For 18 hours, the music, people and energy never stopped.
Boston University’s fourth annual Dance Marathon attracted more than 200 students, many of whom grooved for the entire 18 hours in the Sargent Activities Center from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning.
Uniting to fight against pediatric AIDS, BUDM dancers raised $52,000 from students, parents, friends and businesses. Last year’s event raised $80,000, however, a single donor contributed $28,500, making up the difference in the consecutive years.
BUDM Co-Coordinator Alison Werner said one of the biggest successes of the Marathon was the dedication volunteers had going into the gym.
“The people at the event wanted to be there,” the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior said.
Beneficiaries for the event are The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation-an organization dedicated to identifying, funding and conducting basic pediatric HIV/AIDS research-and Camp Heartland-a camping and outreach program in Willow River, Minn. and Malibu, Calif., for children ages seven to 17 who live in the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
Participants donned four different colored shirts: chairpersons in green, dancers in red, morale-boosters in yellow and volunteers in blue. Although only chairs and dancers were supposed to stay for the whole time, many yellow and blue shirts could be seen just as exhausted, having stayed for the entire event as well.
The highlight of the night came when Student Union President Jon Marker, following up on a promise he made several months ago, had his head shaved at approximately 1 a.m. in celebration of the more than $2,000 he raised.
Shortly after Marker’s dramatic haircut, the lights went out in the SAC and black lights and colored spotlights took their place. Dancers rushed to the locker rooms to change into their white shirts, and Moralers snapped glow sticks for “rave hour.”
The music was predominantly dance and club music and the glow sticks stood out against the white T-shirts. Moralers passed out highlighters to write messages on dancers.
The last hour of the Marathon Sunday morning, characterized by a grab bag of music and fatigued volunteers, saw dancers jiving with as much enthusiasm as had been seen at the outset.
Unlike the dancing, the Marathon was not planned overnight. Since May 2005, Werner and her co-coordinator, Christen Donovan, have made decisions ranging from aesthetic qualities of the gym to the types of games and giveaways that occurred throughout the night.
Many things have changed for the event, even from last year. Werner said the most significant change was having the dance time extended from 12 to 18 hours.
“The vision many people had was not to be just a little fundraiser,” she said, “but the layout and length of the event.”
Werner said one of the hardest parts of planning the large event was dealing with many “behind the scenes” necessities.
For months, the co-coordinators had to arrange everything from booking hotel rooms for guests, gathering and arranging decorations for the gym, creating T-shirts and arranging meetings.
Donovan said the meetings were one of the most critical parts of planning Dance Marathon.
“We got everyone together,” the College of Communication senior said. “We discussed our goals, the amount of people that should be involved and how to get our name out on campus.”
Even setting up the actual gym took almost an entire day.
“The gym looked amazing,” Donovan said. “There was a lot of planning involved.”
BUDM Public Relations Chair K.C. Geen said she was very pleased with not only the turnout of the event, but also the energy dancers brought with them.
At about 3 p.m., Operations Committee Chair Stacy Rosati instructed people on the dance floor as she added new lyrics to Christina Aguilera’s “Come On Over.”
“We are talking about safe sex actually, you know you can’t help yourself, education is the key,” she sang.
“We’re expecting more people to come in throughout the night,” she said. “A lot of Moralers come in and change over.”
Around 8 p.m., the men’s hockey team made an encore performance and sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” and one player took his shirt off and threw it to the crowd.
The BU Cheerleading Team made their first appearance at Dance Marathon, performing some of their moves while music played along.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Marc Nielson said he enjoyed the “wedding theme” of Saturday night.
“There’s a guy in a wedding dress … people are having fun,” he said. “It’s a twilight zone of dance, fun, food, drink and more dance.”
A Western theme was in full swing as the Marathon approached midnight, with dancers donning cowboy hats and boots and the Boston band Moonshine blasting rock standards, including the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated.”
At 11:45 p.m., the night quieted down for a short while when BU’s popular a cappella group The Dear Abbeys performed as the crowd gathered around the stage to hear.
As midnight came and went, slow dancing gave way to a electric vitality as the dancers intoned Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” to mark the point that they were “halfway there.”
Staff reporters Jennifer Paul, Christina Crapanzano, Phil Goldstein, Barbara Rodriguez, Allison Manning and Andrew Waite contributed reporting to this story.