EDITORIAL: Dance Marathon a Huge Success

By The Fordham Ram on February 12, 2014 • ( 0 )

Fordham students may hear and say the mantra, “men and women for others” a thousand times during their Fordham careers, but the selflessness of members of our community often goes unrecognized. Given this, we at The Fordham Ram wanted to make a point of congratulating the Residence Hall Association on its incredible success in planning and executing the Fordham Dance Marathon.

RHA partnered with B+ Foundation, an organization that provides financial and emotional support to families with pediatric cancer patients. Breaking their pre-event goal of $15,000, the event raised over $30,000 in total for B+. This number speaks not only to the hard work of RHA in planning such a successful event, but also to the generosity of the Fordham community.

Starting at 3 p.m. and ending at 1 a.m., the Fordham Dance Marathon gave students a fun opportunity to dance their hearts out all day and night in a “Fordhamized” EDM setting with bright flashing lights and fun outfits. Not only did the event benefit a great cause, but it provided a safe, fun alternative to going to a bar on a Friday night. Several of the on-campus performance groups showcased the wide array of talent present on campus and highlighted students’ willingness to collaborate in the name of charity. Also, FDM proved that Fordham students are more than willing to stay on campus and support a great cause instead of venturing out to parties and bars. There should be more events like FDM on campus, not only to allow students to support a worthy cause like B+, but also to provide an alternative to the “normal” social scene. FDM should serve as an example of a successful alcohol alternative for other organizations looking to plan weekend events.

All in all, the Fordham Dance Marathon was a great success for Fordham and showcased the kind of community we are. It showed how generous, talented and aware Fordham students can be, contradicting the claim that college students and Fordham students are an apathetic bunch overall. Knowing that this is just the first of a series of fundraising initiatives that RHA is undertaking this semester, we wish it the best of luck with its upcoming events and look forward to its continued success. Congratulations RHA, thank you for reminding us what is great about our community, while contributing to a very worthy cause.