Participants dance hard at the Power Hour for Terp Thon 2015 in Xfinity Center Pavilion on Saturday, March 7.
Nine days after Tara Sankner’s eighth birthday, she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
And when Tara’s mother told about 1,200 students at Terp Thon that doctors informed the Sankner family three weeks ago that one of Tara’s tumors had grown, the neon-clad crowd exploded with chants of Tara’s name.
“It means a lot that people are there to support us,” said Tara, now 10, after wiping tears from her eyes onstage. “It feels like an amazing comfort.”
The sixth annual Terp Thon, during which students danced from noon to midnight Saturday, raised $604,318.24 for Washington’s Children’s National Health System in honor of the “Miracle Kids,” including Tara, who came to the event.
“These children are incredibly brave and have gone through so much more than what I’ve had to deal with in my 22 years, and some of them are only, like, 3,” said senior psychology and studio art major Sarah Pontius, Terp Thon’s external director. “Being able to help them and help their families is really an incredible thing.”
The total, which was announced at midnight, is a 41 percent increase from last year’s sum and brought the overall amount Terp Thon has raised in six years to more than $1.8 million.
“The executive board gets cut off from knowing the total two weeks before the event, and it was around $260,000 when we were cut off,” said Amy Vaccaro, a senior communication major and Terp Thon’s executive director. “That’s all we know until we raise the numbers. The feeling onstage, raising those numbers, it’s absolutely incredible — there’s nothing like it.”
On Saturday, Terp Thon became the eighth-highest-fundraising dance marathon in the nation for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, moving up from its No. 10 spot last year, said Tracy Flack, associate director of Children’s Miracle Network.
“It was very rewarding to see those numbers up there after dancing my butt off all day,” freshman business student Kevin Eberhardt said.
More than 400 colleges and high schools held dance marathons for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and raised $16 million for 170 children’s hospitals last year.
“Their fundraising helps ensure that Children’s National can deliver world-class care,” Flack said. “They help us ensure we can really make it a children’s hospital, that we can have art therapists, music therapists, specialized equipment for pediatric patients. They help us ensure that kids can be kids when they come to Children’s National.”
To reach and exceed their $600,000 goal this year, Terp Thon members focused on turning the event into a yearlong fundraising effort, Vaccaro said.
In the fall, the organization hosted its first-ever FTK Week, with campuswide events held each day. Over the course of the seven days, it raised $34,000.
Terp Thon also held a one-day fundraising push Feb. 18, with the hope of collecting $15,000 in 24 hours. They surpassed that goal by about hour 15, raising more than $42,000 by the end of the day, Pontius said.
“It’s an amazing feeling to set up with one goal and then absolutely crush it,” she said.
Unlike past years, Terp Thon was held in Xfinity Pavilion instead of Ritchie Coliseum or Cole Field House. The pavilion has a 2,000-person capacity, compared to Ritchie’s 1,000-person capacity.
“Last year at Ritchie, we were at capacity the whole day, and that was really stressful,” Pontius said. “We never want to turn away dancers, so we picked a venue with double the capacity of Ritchie so we could be as inclusive as possible. It allows us to focus on the families and the dancers who come instead of worrying about how we’re going to fit. ”
Throughout the 12 hours of dancing, Miracle Families shared their stories — an element of the dance marathon that creates a connection between the campus community and the hospital, said Maryam Abutaleb, Terp Thon’s hospital relations chairwoman.
“When you bring everyone in the same room, students see where their money is going and families see how many people are here for them,” said Abutaleb, a junior special education major.
Some of the Miracle Kids, including 12-year-old Amanda Merrell, put on talent shows throughout the event.
Merrell was 2 years old when she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and doctors amputated her left leg.
And despite having had another surgery on her femur just two weeks ago, Merrell took to the Terp Thon stage and performed Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” and Hannah Montana’s “Life’s What You Make It.” It was the first time since the surgery that she put her prosthetic leg back on.
“The songs are related to my story,” she said. “I think about the things I’ve overcome.”
