Students will dance the night away at the annual Ball State University Dance Marathon for Riley Hospital for Children tonight.
Dance Marathon, which runs from 6 p.m. today to 6 a.m. Saturday in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Ballroom, has participants dance and do other activities during the fundraiser.
Students and families support the cause while engaging in 12 hours of sharing stories, fun, games and entertainment.
Kelli Martin, president of Dance Marathon at Ball State said the marathon is not just dancing for 12 straight hours, but standing the whole time is requested.
"All of our marathons are constantly busy the entire 12 hours. There's always something to do at them," Martin said. "We have [Dance Dance Revolution], Wii, games, group activities, different student acts and our favorite thing - also why we're here - are the families who come from all over Indiana to share their Riley story."
Martin said there should be between 150 to 200 dancers, along with students from other schools, families and personal friends of the organization's members. Already, sign-up for the event exceeds last year's attendance.
Martin said the organization would like to raise more than the $10,000 the marathon made last year, and it would like to see an increase in the number of participants.
Founded at Indiana University in 1991, the marathon honors Ryan White, who died of AIDS just before entering his first year of college at IU. Other college campuses across the nation also participate in the annual fundraiser.
The marathon has been successful in raising money so far due to fundraisers and the money dancers have raised through letter writing and corporate sponsors, Martin said.
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