According to the head of City High Dance Marathon, Lydia Karr ‘22, the ambitions and goals the club has this year are like no other. 

“We’re doing a longer event this year. Everything we’ve done in the last three years is building up to this big event of our senior year,” Karr said. 

This year, the club is aiming to hold a twelve hour event which includes no sitting, no caffeine, and dancing and raising money for twelve hours straight. The event would make City High history, as past events have only been 4-6 hours long. 

Within the last few years, there were often two or three club leaders, but over time, the group has found that a leadership team works better. The structure of the club is also different this year. 

“We have a twelve-person leadership team, with subcommittees, but mostly we just work together as a group to get the things done,” Karr explained. “That leadership group is really in charge of all the behind-the-scenes coordination with administration and getting permission for the events we need to have, and also the financial side of things.”

Although 2021 was City High Dance Marathon’s most successful year financially, the club was not immune to the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

“[During the pandemic] we had to be way more creative and think of ways to fundraise that weren’t necessarily in-person events. I also think it raised awareness about how to get better at community outreach,” Karr said. 

Throughout the pandemic, many people self-isolated, which is something that many cancer patients do when receiving treatment. Karr thinks that this helped the public understand what life is like for pediatric patients and their families. 

“It made our club understand as a whole, and society in general, that this is what most pediatric cancer patients have had to go through for years. They had to wear masks in public, they had to isolate themselves before treatments, and make sure that they weren’t getting sick because they were so immunocompromised,” Karr said.

This year, Karr and the other members are especially trying to recruit underclassmen. If you are interested in joining Dance Marathon, reach out to Mr. Black or Ms. Smith. The group meets during advisory every Wednesday.