Many of you don't remember the beginning. Like, the way beginning. We're talking Year 1. A fundraising goal of only $12,000. A 20 year old national dance marathon record being broken.
The beginning.
If you don't know, UNI DM is only 5 years old. I was there at the first event 5 years ago; it was February 25, 2012. It was back then that a meager 500 students gathered into the union. Power Hour was held in the coffeehouse, and there was hardly any organization about the day.
But we danced.
We danced and we didn't care who was watching.
We danced and we met 14 kiddos that melted our hearts.
2012 was the first year that defined our program. That year, we raised $56,473.01 and we broke the national first year fundraising record. 2012 was the year when we knew that there was something special about UNI DM, and so did everyone else.
After our success in year 1, we had been thrust into the national spotlight as a model program. DM programs from across the country were looking to UNI to mimic our success.
In year 2, we raised $101,379.02. That was the year I was a part of the big reveal and only 5 people knew we had surpassed $100K. The Head of Youth Marketing for the Children's Miracle Network, our Co-Executive Directors, our Director of Finance, and the guy wearing the 10.
Passing $100K in only our second year is a BIG DEAL. I'm talking HUGE. That year, everybody was crying. We cried because we had accomplished something so much bigger than ourselves.
It was after that reveal that we knew that we couldn't stop.
In 2014, we raised $176,498.03. That was the year we really started to act like a national program, not just externally with our fundraising total, but internally with the attitude of the executives and all the committee members.
That year we broke into the top 20 dance marathon programs across the nation in terms of fundraising totals.
That year, we knew we had done something special.
But we knew that it wasn't enough.
We knew that UNI was meant to be bold. To do everything bigger and better...
...and we did.
In 2015, we went back to our roots. We focused on why we danced. We focused on doing everything better than before.
We focused on the kids.
In 2015, I had the privilege of serving as the Director of Public Relations for UNI DM. I didn't know my executive teammates at first, but now they're some of my closest friends. In 2015, we set a goal to raise $225,000 because we wanted to be bold. We were scared of this number, but we wanted to challenge UNI to do what other schools hadn't been able to do, and we did it.
We danced.
We laughed.
We cried.
We had a really good time.
And we raised $278,135.04
So why does this year matter? Why does 2016 matter when we've done so well in the past?
It's not about our past numbers, it never should have been. A goal is just a goal; it doesn't have to be reached. 2016 matters because we made a commitment back in 2012. We made a commitment to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. We made a commitment to the families. We made a commitment to our kiddos. We made a commitment to always be FTK, to always strive to do the best we could do. We made a commitment to keep dancing until there is no longer a reason to dance because kiddos don't have to go through the horrible things they do.
Like I said, many of you weren't there back in 2012. Back then, we only dreamed of the amount of money we are going to raise on March 5. This is year 5 for UNI DM. It's the year where we can either be content with where we have been or we can remember the commitment UNI Dance Marathon made back in 2012 and go all out the next few weeks for these kiddos.
Asking people for money really sucks. But when you quit worrying about how you feel when you ask and remember why you are asking, it gets a whole lot easier.
In 2012, $56K wasn't easy.
In 2013, $101K wasn't easy.
In 2014, $176K wasn't easy.
In 2015, $278K wasn't easy.
And you better believe it that in 2016, a goal of $305K won't be easy.
But it's possible.
And if you believe that one day, our kiddos won't be sick anymore, than you should believe that we can raise $305,000 by March 5. It won't be easy, but when it's for the kids, it's definitely worth it.