Dance Marathon exceeds all expectations

[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]

By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter

This past Sunday, Westwood High School held its second annual Dance Marathon. The event took place in the school’s gymnasium, but the energy from inside was palpable even before opening the doors. Streamers and chalk decorated the walkway up to the gym, and the music from inside could be heard across the street. Dance Marathon is overseen by two teachers, Katelyn Testa and Mark McGunagle. However, Testa says that the kids really do everything.

Each of the children of the Miracle Families were pictured.

“We are the two Senior Independent Project teachers. Us and our students are the ones who ran it, but to be honest, the kids do it all,” she said. This year’s fundraising goal was $30,000 and Testa explained how they receive their donations. “We have a website and that’s our main landing page and then within that website all of our students made their own page. They would then send the link to friends and family and they would each get donations. If you see the big thermometers in the gym, each grade was kind of competing.”

All in all, they managed to raise over $30,000 from 383 participants.

Three Westwood seniors explained what they do to prepare for this massive event. “‘SIPP’ stands for Senior Independent Project Program and each senior takes an individual project, but at the beginning of the year, we all come together to create dance marathon,” Brett said.

“We start at the beginning of the year, and we collect donations and we talk to people and we develop the skills that we need to develop our projects later on,” said Lizzy. “We also wanted to do the community give back piece We have committees in each class - we have food, entertainment - so everyone can kind of do their part.”

Testa further explained where the donations go. “It’s a nation-wide fundraiser for your local children’s hospital, and ours is obviously Boston. So all of the money raised goes to the Miracle Families in Boston,” she said. The money goes towards any number of things. “They do balloons in the ER, different entertainment; sometimes it subsidizes parking or housing if the families are there for extended stays. All things to make the kids at the hospital feel that they’re not in the hospital, and to feel special.”

Caroline, another Westwood senior, added: “I think it’s just important that all of the money goes to the kids rather than the hospital, everything is for the kids.”

Throughout the day, people could come and go as they pleased. However, there were a slew of activities to keep people there the entire time. “We’ve tried to mix it up with events to keep people here including food, entertainment, and then the Miracle Families are here themselves,” Testa explained. “Brody’s family just spoke and it was very moving. They did a talk about what Children’s has done for Brody and how important it is. This is really a celebration for them.”