The Daily Campus

Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Matt Lin 4-year-old Olivia, a past patient of the Children's Medical Center stands with Jonathan.

UConn student dancers and donors raised over $100,000 this weekend at HuskyTHON, an 18-hour dance marathon to benefit the Conncticut Children's Medical Center.

HuskyTHON has grown immensely throughout the years. During opening ceremonies, a slideshow played that showed the amount of money raised over the years.

In the past between $10,000 and $15,000 was an average amount of money raised. However, from 2007 to 2008 the amount raised jumped to $56,000, almost four times as much as had been raised in the past.

"The event has grown so much," said HuskyTHON Executive Director, Jessica Budnick. "My freshman year it was in Jorgensen with maybe 80 dancers, but this year it's in the Field House and we have more dancers than any other year, and more corporate sponsors."

The money raised comes from a combination of corporate sponsors, donations, families and dancers. The dancers pledge to raise $150, while the directors of the event pledge to raise $500. Last year there were 204 dancers, and this year there were 530 - more than doubling last year's turnout. The student involvement and money raised have both increased dramatically over the past few years.

"We have a lot more campus involvement than in the past," said Kristen Morello, the internal director for HuskyTHON.

"It used to be strictly Greek life involvement but this year we have other groups such as the Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center - a group we've never had before."

Student involvement is the key component to HuskyTHON.

"The effort put into it shows the devotion and determination to make it the nest it's been," said Jamie Esposito, a 2nd-semester exploratory major. "The activities showed that those who organized it were in touch with what would attract students, families, and kids. They looked at the entire spectrum of what would be fun."

The sororities and fraternities were paired with children whom they sponsored, fostering interaction among the UConn students and children.

"One of the guys in the fraternity that my sorority socializes with was talking to the boy we sponsored and spent a lot of time getting to know him," said Annie Giannattasio, a 2nd-semester business major and member of Alpha Epsilon Phi. "There was a lot of interaction between the children and students, and it was really personal."

Continued...

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