This week, students across the Syracuse University campus are gearing up for one of the biggest philanthropy events of the year: OttoTHON.

OttoTHON is a 12-hour dance marathon that aims to raise money for the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. Last semester the event brought in over $84,000, making OttoTHON the largest student philanthropy group on the SU campus.

This semester, OttoTHON hopes to raise $100,000 to build the hospital a new wing or a new pediatric emergency room.

“We were able to donate so much money to the hospital last year that a lot of the kids from the hospital know what OttoTHON is, and really respect and love what they do,” said Bess Howell, a junior television, radio and film major who works as one of OttoTHON’s heads of PR/marketing.

OttoTHON will be this Saturday night in Goldstein Auditorium. Registration begins for dancers at 10:30 a.m. and the event itself lasts from noon to midnight.

The half-day event consists of a full schedule involving games, dance-offs, performances, food and stories from kids receiving treatment at the hospital. Each dancer is required to raise at least $100, and all proceeds go directly to Upstate Golisano.

Students may also form teams to raise money. At the moment, the OttoTHON website reports that the highest-raising teams so far are the OttoTHON E-Board, Delta Gamma sorority, “Sadler 4 and Frands” and The First Year Players.

The slogan of the event, “For The Kids,” represents the main idea behind the marathon: dancers must stay on their feet for the full 12 hours and dance for the kids that can’t.

“Knowing that this money is going to such a great cause and providing children with the best possible experience while they undergo treatment is an incredible feeling,” said Summer Schneider, a senior advertising major who also runs the marathon’s PR/marketing.

The dance marathon first began in 1972 at Penn State University, and some years later was adopted by the Children’s Miracle Network. Since then, according to the CMN website, over 250 colleges and high schools have hosted dance marathons, and over $106 million has been fundraised for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

OttoTHON was founded in the fall of 2014 by executive director Jillian Lynch, a junior dual broadcast and digital journalism and citizenship and civic engagement major. The first Syracuse THON event was held last February.

Although Syracuse had hosted various dance marathons before, OttoTHON marked the first event to be put on with the Children’s Miracle Network.

There are a few changes from last year in store for dancers. One difference is that February’s event ran from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Schneider said this change will coincide better with students’ schedules so that everyone can stay for the full 12 hours.

In order to promote this year’s dance marathon, the OttoTHON team produced multiple ad campaigns, including shooting a promotional video. The video, which has more than 2,100 views on Facebook as of 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, featured several children who are patients at the hospital. After the video was released, Howell and Schneider said there was an increase in volunteer and dancer registration.

“[The video] strengthened our connection to the philanthropy because the team was able to meet so many of the children and families we are affecting,” Schneider said.

This year’s OttoTHON will feature greater involvement from the children and their families. Schneider said that the OttoTHON team hopes that this participation will grow even more for future events.

“Me personally, as well as I think everyone else is really excited to see kids from Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital come to the event,” Howell said. “We have a lot of kids coming, and they are so excited.”

Published on December 2, 2015 at 9:36 pm

Contact: emmichae@syr.edu