Friday, April 10, hundreds of Elon University students will take part in an “out of this world” experience of standing, dancing and celebrating “For the Kids” (FTK) at Elonthon 2015: To Infinity and Beyond FTK.
As of Tuesday, March 31, 1,073 students signed up for Elon.
Elonthon PR Chair Tegan Oglesby said that
A popular event for Greek organizations to participate in — all nine PHC sororities and six out of the seven IFC fraternities are signed up — Elonthon executive members made it a goal this year to diversify the groups who participate in the event.
“Every year, Exec makes it our mission to reach out to as many campus organizations as possible and personally invite them to make a team for Elonthon,” said Elonthon Director Kaylyn Weller. “Teams don’t have to be just campus organizations. We encourage friend groups, hall mates, and sports teams to sign up together as well. This is an event for every student on this campus to be involved in, so our dancer recruitment reflects that.”
Oglesby agreed and said she thinks Elonthon has the potential to widen its reach of organizations on campus.
“It’s a goal of ours to get a wider variety of organizations involved in Elonthon,” she said. “Elonthon is a great event for teams and organizations to partake in. It’s something for them to rally around.”
Elonthon views the large presence of Greek Life as a natural move to expand their typical philanthropy work.
“In an event that’s about fundraising, Greek organizations have so many people that they’re naturally going to donate and participate,” said Elonthon director of marketing Conor Janda.
A central part of Elonthon is raising money for young patients going through treatment at Duke Children’s Hospital.
Last year, $176,216.94 was raised at Elonthon, a significant drop from the $212,728.20 raised in 2013.
While money is important, Janda also measured success through the spirit of the event.
“Last year, even though the total went down, there was more spirit,” he said. “To me, keeping the spirit and morale high is one of most important things.”
Weller said Elonthon does not have a specific fundraising goal because every dollar raised goes toward helping children at Duke Children’s Hospital. Raising any amount of money is the ultimate goal.
“However, since this is a fundraising event for such a worthy cause, we want to push further and raise more money every year for the kids,” she said. “These kids are going through some unimaginable things, and if they can persevere, all of us can easily make a personal fundraising goal and meet that goal.”
Since first participating in Elonthon in 2011, Weller has seen Elonthon — established in 2003 — become a larger presence on campus.
“More of the student population recognizes Elonthon and genuinely understand what it means to dance ‘For the Kids,’” she said. “I think that is the biggest and most positive change of them all: participating in Elonthon FTK is slowly becoming a part of the Elon culture.”
For many, Elonthon will be a period of honoring the children going through treatment.
“Some people don’t understand why we do 24 hours,” Oglesby said. “It shows our respect to them. They [Children going through treatment] go through so much and really appreciate that we stand for them.”