St. Ambrose University Dance Marathon (SAU Dance Marathon) broke a new record
at their Fall Push Day, Thursday, October 8th. The week leading up to Push Day, known as
push week, members of Dance Marathon, especially those on the special events
committee, have been completing the finishing touches to bring Push Day to life.
According to special events director, Audrey Cruse This year SAU Dance Marathon
came prepared, ” Honestly, it went really good. My committee knew what they were doing.
We had a lot of volunteers from other Dance Marathon people that came, and they just
filled in where they needed to, and the did an amazing job.”
This year’s theme was “Our Kiddos Are Out of This World”, a throwback theme to a
dance marathon’s eighth year, when they used the same theme for their Push Day. This
throwback theme is part of a yearlong celebration celebrating the 15th year of SAU Dance
Marathon. The theme is also fitting as this is SAU Dance Marathon’s first event of the year,
meaning that they are using Fall Push Day to blast off into a whole new year of Dance
Marathon.
According to Vice president of Internal Affairs Jack Day, “It’s not even Big Event, but
it feels like it’s a culmination of the work that we’ve put in so far. And we have such a
passionate, excited, enthusiastic group.”
This theme also puts SAU Dance Marathon ‘s miracle families at the center of Push
Day. SAU’s branch of Dance Marathon supports sixty-three different families of kids who
have been treated at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
“It’s not about, how busy we are in our lives.” Family relations chair Katie Attig
explains, “Were we’re here at Push Day and we’re here at Big Event, we’re about to focus
solely on our families and solely on our mission”
This year’s Fall Push Day fundraising goal was $24,000 in 24 hours, and that goal
was blown away with the highest recorded amount of money SAU Dance Marathon has
ever raised on a Push Day, $38,085.15. Truly, this Fall Push Day was out of this world. SAU
Dance Marathon will hold their Spring Push Day on February 4th
