By Kim Friel
Student Life Editor
The interest meeting for a Dance Marathon at Washington College took place this past Monday evening in the Student Center of Hudson Lounge. Freshmen, Ashley Carol–Fingerhut is heading the event and says the meeting went well. “It’s always nerve-racking when you start a club like this because you are hoping that you are doing something that other people are interested in as well. I was really happy with the turn out at the first meeting and even happier when I received Facebook messages and e-mails from students and faculty asking if they could be added to the list so that they could get involved in DM.” Ashley sat on the executive board of her high school’s Dance Marathon her junior and senior year and was debating on whether or not to make an effort to start one here at WC.
“One day when I was studying with some friends I happened to mention DM and I got a very positive reaction. When we had lunch, one of them mentioned it to Brielle Appelbaum, who is my co-chair now, and she said she would really like to help me make this happen.”
Ashley is hoping that Dance Marathon will take place during the spring semester which will give all those involved” time to prepare for the event.
“What is important for students to know is that there are many ways for them to get involved in DM depending on how much they want to do, so even if they are slightly interested in finding out more about DM they should come to our meetings and stay posted for more announcements about what we’re doing.”
There are many different committees to get involved such as Alumni and College Relations, Corporate Relations, Food, Dancer Registration, Entertainment/Productions, Finance, Media, Public Relations, and Fundraising. Until then, Dance Marathon committees will be holding events throughout campus and the community to raise money for two charities, which will be decided on at next meeting. The final event will be Dance Marathon which will be a night of dancing with the final amount raised announced at the end of the night. Ashley wants to have two charities so all of DM’s efforts can be put towards a national charity and then also a local charity.
“The purpose of a secondary beneficiary that helps out our community is to garner more support from Chestertown for DM and the college in general. There seems to a divide amongst college students and the people who live here. If we can help bridge that gap through DM that would be fantastic.” Forms must be completed in order to nominate deserving charities on the national and local level. Join the DM Facebook group or contact Ashley if you would like to nominate charities or to get involved. “Dance Marathons have been successful at many other colleges, and we have the possibility to make DM a great tradition at Washington College,” said Ashley. The next DM meeting will be held on Nov. 1 in the Student Center of Hodson at 7 p.m.
YOUR AWESOME ASH! Good luck! it maybe the next Northwestern DM.