Ethan Does Dance Marathon

The University of Iowa is holding it’s 19^th fund raiser for childhood cancer.  The event is a 24 hour Dance Marathon, where hundreds of University of Iowa students raise at least $400 each and all of the proceeds go to childhood cancer—the kids, the families, research, education, support of survivorship programs, you name it.  The money raised, which now tops a million dollars each year, changes the lives of children with cancer and their families in Iowa for the better in many ways, both emotionally and physically.  They provide the best information available about how to cope with childhood cancer—both the treatment and the survivorship.  They support summer camps for children with cancer as well as one for their siblings—the experience of having a critically ill sibling is terrifying, and no one showers them with attention.  They also have little support and almost nothing in the way of peers who know what they have been through—camp changes all that.  They support college tuitions for childhood cancer survivors.  They provide critically needed research dollars—they can fund pilot projects so that investigators have the data to apply for federally funded grants.  These are just a few of the good works that flow from Dance Marathon.

We have reason to know—my youngest son had a brain tumor when he was five years old and spent a year receiving radiation and chemotherapy at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  While having a child diagnosed with cancer is a catastrophe in so many ways, the actual experience of receiving treatment was phenomenal for him.  He loved the hospital.  The inpatient unit had state-of-the-art technology available for every hospitalized child is just one small example of what Dance Marathon has accomplished—the depth and breadth of the entertainment that he could immerse himself in at the bedside was breath taking.  He looked forward to being hospitalized.  To watch him, you would never know he was getting chemotherapy—except for his lack of hair.  He was so happy.  I know that money cannot buy happiness,  but the financial resources that Dance Marathon provides to sick children and their families in Iowa does in some ways translate to happiness in a very scary circumstance.  He has been hospitalized at other institutions and they just do not have the same atmosphere.  

This year marks the first year that my youngest son will be a fundraiser and dancer, but this is his 13^th Dance Marathon. Every other year he has reveled in being special for one day.  This year he is giving back to an organization that has helped him and his family to cope with some of the darkest days we have had together.  If you would like to donate to his effort, here is the website:  https://osl.iowa.uiowa.edu/dancemarathon/donate/4/8491