Mon. Mar. 12th – UDance HUGE Success!
Three years ago, The B+ Foundation partnered with a small group of students for UDance. UDance was first started in 2007 by Jessie Forman and Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilson fraternity. In 2009, with the generous guidance of THON students’ knowledge at Penn State, we brought the event to the UD Field House and introduced the concept of ‘adopting’ B+ Heroes (brave children who are/were fighting cancer). That, I believe, was the turning point for UDance. My goal was to put these brave children on a pedestal. That, we accomplished. What I didn’t anticipate was that we were going to create a life-changing experience for the college students.
UDance is a 12 hour dance marathon that benefits The B+ Foundation. The money raised will go to support cutting edge research into childhood cancers and assist families of children with cancer.
In 2009, ‘we’ (presumptuously, I see us as a team with the students) raised $25,000.
In 2010, that total jumped to $118,000. I was stunned.
Last year, we hit $275,000 when all the donations were finally counted.
Last night at 11pm, the total for 2012 was revealed — $455,982.16!!!!!!!! This money will allow us to touch so many lives.
It was an amazing day! We were fortunate enough to have 19 of our 22 B+ Heroes join us (the other 3 were either sick or had other commitments). We even had one B+ Hero, Miranda, who scheduled her chemo so that she could race down to Newark to join us on stage for the B+ Hero Recognition Ceremony. We were joined by DE Gov. Jack Markell, Rep. John Carney (DE), the B+ Racing Team, Foundation 11, the UD Women’s Lacrosse Team, UD Football Team, UD Volleyball Team, UD Equestrian Team, and straight from their CAA Conference Championship victory, the UD Women’s Basketball Team, among many other groups and sponsors. We included a few select high schools this year and St. George’s Tech HS and Ursuline Academy joined us yesterday for the festivities.
Finally, I must express my deep gratitude to the UD Executive Board for their tireless efforts over the past 12 months. Their sacrifice and dedication is most impressive. And, to the two Exec. Co-Chairs, Eric Oppenheimer and my hero, Ali McDonough, who went above and beyond to make this year’s UDance the best ever, I can’t thank you enough. You succeeded, guys! Congratulations and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Here’s a link from today’s Wilmington (DE) News-Journal about UDance 2012:
As they say at UDance,
“For a Smile, For a Life, For a Cure!”
B+
Ali & Andrew’s Dad