Cecilia Murphy ’22
Alina Klaehn ’22
Although students enjoyed the change in the DancEAthon format to a winter formal, the $6,700 raised this year for CHOP was significantly less than the $50,000 that was raised last year. Previously, the DancEAthon event consisted of student “dancers” who pledged to stay on their feet for hours. People could donate in the dancer’s name to support CHOP. However, the DancEAthon event had trouble getting off the ground after last year’s event was snowed out. The change also occured due to a change in fundraising at EA which Scottie Crockett, head of the DancEAthon committee explained, “The business office changed their process of how they allow fundraising to happen. The office thought they were asking parents for a lot of money and adding Danceathon on top of that is too much.” Mike Letts head of Upper School added “A lot of families felt like they were required to buy a $20 T-shirt, make a pledge, and sponsor a dancer which is a lot to ask for.” Therefore, this year the money was raised through ticket sales, costing $15 per student, and $20 for an outside date. However, due to the new fundraising restrictions, the committee did not sell T-shirts or offer the opportunity to pledge money or donate, likely resulting in the decrease in money raised.
The dance was held in the Lower School gym and about 400 upper schoolers attended. Kelly Edwards, who served as faculty adviser to the DancEAthon committee, said that “Upper School participation this year was better than in past years.” Students who attended reported having a great time and enjoying the dance more than the previous years. Juliette Loor ‘22 stated “It was more fun than last year because people were actually interacting and dancing. I definitely recommend doing something like this next year because having all the grades together made it more of an enjoyable experience.” Ashley Lederman ‘21 agreed, saying, “I liked the DancEAthon better this year because it was more inclusive of everyone and overall more engaging. It was fun to have a whole high school dance.”
This year the fundraiser targeted CHOP’s Leukemia program. Isabelle Rohr ‘19, has a personal connection with this program. “My brother was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He was treated there for five years, so we spent a great deal of time there. He had such a positive experience with the nurses and doctors there and is now fully cured. My mother volunteers at CHOP and our whole family still participates in fundraisers for the Oncology department.” When hearing that Episcopal would be giving back to CHOP, she was thrilled. “It’s an amazing hospital which provides fabulous care and hope to so many children this year.” Isabelle attended this year’s DancEAthon and thought it was “fantastic.” She reported that “there was a great turnout and the energy in the room was fabulous” and thus believes, “we should continue with this tradition in future years.”Although the new format increased Upper School participation, it excluded middle and lower schoolers, who were included in the previous DancEAthons, significantly decreasing the amount of money raised. Edwards says, “Moving forward, it would be great if we could reinvent a way for the MS and LS to be more involved.” Working around new fundraising restrictions will pose a challenge to the committee in future years, however Edwards remains optimistic saying, “With our innovative and creative student body, I know we will come up with great ideas to raise the amount of money we have in past years.”