PAST YEARS
$196,228.20 raised in 2013
$87,628 raised in 2012
$39,220 raised in 2011
$16,290 raised in 2010
Source: donate.rileykids.org
Last year, Ball State University Dance Marathon raised almost $200,000 for Riley Children’s Foundation. For the BSUDM president, raising this much money and awareness has become her life.
Emily Probst, a junior child life specialist major, said she has spent around 140 hours in meetings this school year. The meetings plan various fundraising events the group sponsors, including the annual dance that starts at 2 p.m. Saturday and lasts for 12 hours.
“It’s a big time commitment, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said.
She also has spent time in weekly adviser meetings, various weekend events and around two to three hours daily on other Dance Marathon preparation and activities for the event that hopes to raise $250,000 this year.
The organization donates $30,000 of the money raised each year to the Magic Castle Cart, which gives patients toys, games and jewelry.
Katie Glesing, the Riley Children’s Foundation Dance Marathon coordinator who works with Ball State, said what Magic Castle Cart does is “smile therapy.”
“When the kids see it, it’s a pretty big highlight to the day,” she said. “I know someone my age who is 26 or 27, and she can still remember when she would see the [Magic Castle Cart] coming down the hall.”
The rest of the money raised goes to Riley Hospital for Children’s Palliative Care program, which works with children who have chronic and terminal illnesses. BSUDM is currently the largest donor to the program in the nation, Glesing said.
Glesing said without BSUDM’s donations, starting the program would not have been a possibility. The hospital’s CEO will come to Dance Marathon on Saturday to thank the group for its efforts in helping start the program. Some of the children who the hospital cares for also will attend the event and will speak.
Only two members of Dance Marathon will know how much money was raised by the time of the dance. When the results are announced at 2 a.m., it will be as much a surprise to the dancers as it will be for everyone else.
Probst said Riley Hospital has held a special place in her heart since high school, when she participated in her first Dance Marathon. When she came to Ball State, she was a committee member for Riley Relations and then a co-director of Riley Relations her sophomore year. She said she also volunteers for Riley Hospital during breaks and when she gets the chance.
She said her own hospitalization in first grade sparked her interest in and desire to give back to hospitals that cater to children.
For Probst, this event is a family affair. One of her sisters is a nurse at Riley Hospital and another was on the executive board for Purdue University’s Dance Marathon.
“Many times, [my sister] is just in tears because of what we’re doing for the patients she sees every day,” she said. “It’s a little family adventure.”
Probst said when she found out she would become president of BSUDM, she spent a long car ride getting ideas from her older sister who participated at Purdue. Many of the ideas she brought to the Ball State chapter came from that conversation.
She said when she joined the organization her freshman year, she didn’t realize it would impact her so much. Now, she wants to work for Riley Hospital after she graduates.
“Never in the world would I have thought that I would be where I am today,” Probst said. “It has transformed me as a person in such an incredible way.”
She said the direct impact Dance Marathon has is one reason the organization caught her interest. She can drive an hour to the hospital to see exactly where the money is going.
Although the organization continues to raise more money each year, Probst said she isn’t too worried about exactly how much money is raised.
“I wouldn’t say there is pressure because I know that whatever we raise, people are going to be excited,” she said. “People are going to know that they’re making a difference.”
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