A Mile(stone) in Their Shoes ​ Happy birthday! This is a phrase we are all too familiar with. I can recall the endless Facebook posts from people wishing me happy birthday, and my family singing to me as I blew out the candles on the delicious ice cream cake I always had to have on every birthday occasion, no matter how old. I remember turning 16 and just NEEDING to get my driver’s license, but now I look back and see that I have been fortunate enough to reach many mileston

“We dance for the chance, cuz there is no better way, UNI DM is FTK!” “FTK, FTK, FTK” “We are FTK!” Now you may have heard these phrases a few times before, but what does it really mean to be FTK? For those of you who do not know, FTK means, “For the Kids.” Everything we do is for the kids. Dance Marathon is an organization that raises money for the Iowa Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Miracle Network. All of this money raised goes to the kiddos; to help them be m

Does the idea of Dance Marathon intimidate you? Does it scare you when people ask, “Do you want to be a part of something bigger than yourself”? How about confuse you? Dance Marathon did all of those things to me upon first hearing about it. Before college, I had never once heard the term “Dance Marathon”. Growing up in high school I had been a part of organizations like Relay for Life. I knew what the cause was and what we were raising money for, but I never had a tr

I am not going to start my letter by getting into all of the amazing things that you can gain from UNI Dance Marathon. Hopefully you already know, if not you can scroll down through our blog and get an idea. Instead, I am going to ask you, what do you have to lose? First, look at our website, then read our mission statement. After, if you can tell me that you do not care about joining after realizing what we do, then that's fair. However, I believe most of you will think diff

When and how did you first hear about Dance Marathon? During sophomore year of high school I was a part of student council and we had gotten approached by another school on hosting a Tri-County Mini Dance Marathon. Our student council’s then worked together and with the University of Iowa Dance Marathon to create a Dance Marathon at our school. After that I just knew I had to join Dance Marathon at whatever college I attended! What is your role in the organization now? This

For this edition of Chattin’ with a Captain, I had the honor of getting to know more about Morale Captain Alexis Scharfenkamp! Alexis is a sophomore from Des Moines, IA studying Public Relations. Her spunky, one-of-a-kind personality always brings so much joy to the Morale Team, and UNI Dance Marathon is incredibly lucky to have her! When and why did you initially get involved with Dance Marathon? This is my first year being involved with Dance Marathon. I chose to get invol