Boys will be boys, and girls just want to have fun. Both are made possible, even for kids battling illness at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, thanks to Dance Marathon and their partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network.

The underlying theme of Dance Marathon, at colleges across Iowa and at Iowa State, is to accumulate as much money as possible to donate to the Children’s Miracle Network. CMN, in turn, works with the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital to establish programs and materials to help establish a more welcoming and interactive atmosphere for the children at the hospital.

Morgan Rohrbach, assistant director of Iowa’s Children’s Miracle Network, said donations from Dance Marathon are, in large part, put toward luxuries to help “make it feel like home in the hospital.”

One of the items bearing the name of the university at the hospital is the Iowa State Dance Marathon Playroom. The playroom is just one facet of what Iowa State’s Dance Marathon has brought to the Children’s Hospital.

Small items, such as bandages and stickers in outpatient care along with Playstation 2 game consoles in patient rooms, are some of the luxuries that have been on Iowa State’s donation list in the past. Larger projects such as imaging equipment for research labs have also been part of what Rorbach said is “significant funding” from Dance Marathon.

“These are all amenities that make the hospital a more comfortable place. A lot of our families are here for weeks or months on end.we just want to help a kid to be able to be a kid,” she said.

Chelsy Kemmet, junior in biology and Dance Marathon family chairperson,said building relationships with the 70 to 80 families and their children who are at the Children’s Hospital is quite possibly the biggest contribution that dancers can make on an individual basis.

Aside from establishing emotional connections with the children, Dance Marathon also helps provide the families with entertaining events, such as visiting theme parks and hosting parades, that may not have been possible otherwise.

“For a lot of the families going through medical troubles, it’s financially a very hard time for them, so our events just provide them with an opportunity to get out and do something that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do,” Kemmet said.

While bringing smiles to the faces of children is a primary objective for Dance Marathon, making donations to help with their medical needs is something important.

But, unlike other charities, Dance Marathon is able to directly allocate their funds to particular, specific items or programs.

“The unique thing is that we don’t just dump all the money in a fund – the doctors make presentations to us about what things are really needed for the hospital,” Kemmet said.