Dance Marathon 17

Each year we go to the Dance Marathon Marathon and each time we come home saying "That was awesome, fun, a HUGE party. It was great to see our friends. We love going to DM the marathon", and again this year we said those same things except we added "Ammon's nose looks awful!" (more on that to come!)

This year was alittle harder knowing that we wouldn't be able to see and play with Becky, and that her name would be on the 'Dancing in our Hearts' quilt and the candle burning by the quilts would also be for her.

Becky's name is on the bottom row in purple-3rd from the left.

This year the family room was a Dr. Seuss theme. They had all the activities named after part of a book or story. They hid 10 Cat in the Hat hats around the room, and if you found them you got your name in the raffle, and got to pick a prize from the "Cindy Lou Who's Prizes for you-who" prizes table. Simeon's 1st prize was a neon green Nerf football, Ammon got a Star Wars Lego kit, Corrine got a bag with body glitter, lip gloss etc., and Rebecca got a Princess Aurora baby doll. But the prizes didn't end there. We went home with over a dozen new toys thanks to the prize table. There was a fishing game and everytime you got a purple fish-you got a prize. We had enough prizes to fill the stroller!! They also had a raffle that the kids kept getting tickets for from the fishing game. (We never knew what the raffle was, and weren't in the room when they gave it away.)




This year we had a new group of students cheering Simeon on. The Morale captain was Mary. She did a great job of sending cards to us and keeping us in the loop of things going on. Last week a big box came to the house with blankets she had made for the kids.



Nicole told us that this was her 3rd Marathon, and we were her first family to come to the marathon. She said it made it more real for her to have the family they were dancing for being there to play with, talk to and get to know.


Friday night we were in the ballroom dancing. A student got down at Rebecca's level and asked if he could hug her. (Remember she's in a lion costume.) She walked right up to him and let him hug her. It was the 1st person she had gone to other then family. We realized while talking that he (Patrick)was a member of our group. Because of scheduling conflicts we hadn't been able to meet our group of students before tonight, so it was really neat to bump into them in the crowded ballroom.

Rebecca LOVED the family room. They had a blowup pool filled with balls. She spent so much time in there. She also fell in love with a Lion costume, and wore it all night Friday. She even had it on when we went on stage to be introduced. She was adorable in it and had her picture taken by so many people! On Saturday she didn't want to wear the lion costume, but rather a unicorn one. It was so cute when the students would see her walking in the costume. They'd all stop and look at her and say things like: "she's so adorable", "look at her". Rebecca ate up the attention!! During power hour I put her on my shoulders so she could see better what was going on. She thought that was the best place to be! She loved all the music and dancing and never seemed overwhelmed in the main ballroom.







Ammon had so much energy this weekend. He ran around chasing Manish, and being chased by Manish. He jumped and jumped and slid down the slide in the bounce house time and time again. He had a smile on his face almost the whole time. He was much more independent this year. He'd stay in the room with us, but he'd go off and play or get a snack then come back to us, then go off again. He had at least a dozen snowcones this weekend. He'd go get one, and come back with a handful of candy, but most of the candy he got was for other people not himself. He was being such a sweetie! Ammon had an accident towards the end of the marathon. He was running around in the main ballroom and crashed into someone. He hit his nose just right and it started bleeding really bad. Johann ran him into the First Aid area and they helped him out. It took along time to stop the bleeding and he ended up in a new shirt. After this he wasn't in such a great mood and ended up falling sleep on the ballroom floor in the midst of Power Hour where the room is jumping it is so loud and energized.








Simeon of course LOVES the Best Buy room. They have a dozen tv's with different gaming systems and games for the families to play. Simeon played alot with Chris (Becky's brother) Friday night and his friend Carter and him met up there Saturday morning. The neon green football he got from the prize table was the hit of the party! If Simeon wasn't playing football in the best buy room, he was throwing the ball around with someone. Carter and him had quite the game with some college girls going in the hallway. Towards the end of the marathon, he went up and danced on the stage and then with the students, but mostly he likes to play.






Each group has a student who can come be with the families during the event, this year it was Nicole and Corrine LOVED her. Corrine held her hand and they went everywhere together Friday night and Saturday morning. It's really fun to see Corrine attach so strongly to a student, but it's hard to get her to unattach when they leave! Friday night she kept asking where Manish was. She wanted to give him a hug and chase him. So many kids absolutely LOVE Manish. He's like a big kid who will play with them! During the night she started coughing and late Saturday morning it was obvious she wasn't feeling good, so she rested and played off and on Saturday. Friday night she found a cats mask in the dress up area and she never took it off all night. It was super cute, but super hot -according to Corrine.





Saturday morning we got to meet our entire group of dancers. We talked to them about our experience with cancer. They asked questions, some about Simeon's favorite soirts teams. It's a neat time for them to get to first hand see a family affected by cancer and to understand why this money is so needed. Mary had shirts made for our group.

The point of the marathon is for the students to raise money for the Iowa Children's Hospital, specifically for kids with cancer. This year they topped the last 2 years with the amount they raised. Patrick, from our group, told us that Thursday night he was going door to door trying to raise more money, and he told a lady about Simeon. She wrote him a check for what he thought was $50. Later when he looked at the check he realized that she had written it for $500.

$1,220,146.17

During Power Hour they hand out glow sticks to everyone in the room. During the last few minutes, they are throw in the air. It is so neat to see the neon green flying in the air as the music pumps out the last beats! At the very end, we all made a circle around the edge of the room. In the middle were all the glow sticks. The kids could hardly wait until they could go collect them. As soon as everything was said and done, we let them go collect-and collect they did. Thier shirts were so full they couldn't get anymore in them. We let them bring home a handful of them and the rest we made a HUGE pile with on the stage.



This was our 5th year going to Dance Marathon, and we're planning on going again next year and the year after that. These students do so much for the kids. This weekend they give them a party to always remember, and the rest of the year they give them hope, courage, a friend to play with and love. When Simeon has been off treatment for 5 years, he'll have a special graduation ceremony on the main stage complete with gowns and certificates. It's another way that they are cheering on these kids. WE LOVE DANCE MARATHON!!!