HISTORY
"
For the 2011-2012 school year, the Kinesiology Club at St. Ambrose was led by President Sara (Oberhoffer) McCaffrey and Vice President Stephanie Garner; myself and a few other students rounded out a leadership team of 5 or 6 total students. That year, we decided we wanted to expand the Kin Club's footprint on campus and in the community. Part of that effort was to do more philanthropic work, so Sara and Steph started looking into a variety of ideas; one of which was to do a dance marathon. They floated the idea by the rest of the leadership team, and we all thought it sounded like a fun idea. Little did we know that "dance marathon" was really Dance Marathon.
Sara and Steph did some asking around and got in touch with Children's Miracle Network. Unknown to the two of them, another group-- headed by student Emily Fritz and staff member Chelsea Harrison-- had also reached out to CMN. After a few emails (and a lot of confusion), everyone finally got on the same page and all met up. As a larger group, we met with Chelsea Harrison (who would become the first SAU DM advisor), CMN representative Sarah Brumwell, and SAU's Director of Student Life Jason Richter. At that meeting, we decided to separate from the Kin Club and formally create SAU Dance Marathon as an official "club" on campus in February 2012.
Personally, it's been nothing shy of incredible to see SAU DM grow to like it has. I can't speak for the other 9 members of the leadership team for SAU DM 0.5, or for the other 7 executive board members for SAU DM 1, but I never imagined it would turn out to be this incredible. Every year my wife Amanda and I say to each other, "I don't know how they're going to top this next year." And then the next year rolls around, and we end up in awe again....and saying "I don't know how they're going to top this next year." Because when we started it way back in 2012, we were just this small group of students on a campus that was not overly involved in on-campus life. We were optimistic, but we were realistic; we hoped for a couple of people and a few thousand dollars. To think it's in the hundreds of students, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and dozens of families... I have to pinch myself sometimes to check and make sure it's all real.
Bright orange never meant anything to me before 2012... but it does now. Now it means hope, pride, optimism, and a fighting spirit.
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-Mark C. Brauweiler
Co-Founder of SAU DM & 2013 Alumni
WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED
Thus far we have raised over 2 MILLION DOLLARS for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital!
We have funded a Child Life Resource Space, NICU equipment, a BRAND NEW inclusive playground for the UI Disabilities and Development Center, and fundraised for the Ponseti Endowment, the UIHCSFCH General Nursing Fund, and Food for families!
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DM 4
March 5, 2016
23 families
679 dancers
12 hours
$186,769.44
DM 2
April 5, 2014
18 families
688 dancers
10 hours
$132,148.02
DM 3
March 28, 2015
21 families
711 dancers
12 hours
$175,103.03
DM 1
April 6, 2013
13 families
432 dancers
8 hours
$47,743.67
DM 0.5
April 3, 2012
4 families
200 dancers
4 hours
$5,118.78
DM 5
April 1, 2017
27 families
641 dancers
13.1 hours
$223,861.05
DM 6
March 24, 2018
33 families
641 dancers
13.1 hours
$251,084.06
DM 7
March 30, 2019
42 families
610 dancers
13.1 hours
$270,654.07
DM 8
March 28, 2020
Virtual Event: April 4, 2020
43 families
567 dancers
13.1 hours
$208,732.08
DM 9
April 17, 2021
44 families
527 dancers
13.1 hours
$191,254.09
DM 10
April 23, 2022
50 families
431 dancers
13.1 hours
$250,386.10
DM 11
April 22, 2023
51 families
250 dancers
13.1 hours
$211,068.11
DM 12
April 20, 2024
58 families
183 dancers
13.1 hours