EXEC LETTER: AMANDA HOWARD

One night, I was Google-ing Dance Marathon like I often do. I came across this quote: “A WIFE WHO LOSES A HUSBAND IS CALLED A WIDOW. A HUSBAND WHO LOSES A WIFE IS CALLED A WIDOWER. A CHILD WHO LOSES HIS PARENTS IS CALLED AN ORPHAN. BUT … THERE IS NO WORD FOR A PARENT WHO LOSES A CHILD; THAT’S HOW AWFUL THE LOSS IS.” – Neugeboren

After I read this, I sat and tried to think of something that could possibly be worse than losing your child. I couldn't come up with a single thing. We are often asked “Why do you dance?” here at UNI. This quote sums up why we dance. We “dance for the chance” to give children life. Kids should not have to grow up in hospital beds. They shouldn’t have to keep fighting to live another day. Parents shouldn’t EVER have to experience loosing their child. We have the ability to lower the number of parents that have to experience loosing their child just by raising money and dancing. Every day there are 89,280 kids that are getting treated in a Children’s Miracle Hospital. That means that each of those kids have parents that are worried about their child and a lot of them are scared to loose the most precious thing in the world to them. We have the opportunity to potentially save lives. Let’s take that opportunity and run with it! I have a sign in that hangs in my room that says, “Do Not Give Up”. I will not give up until we have raised as much money that we can. I hope that you never give up either! I hope that one day, we won’t have to dance for a chance. But until that day comes, I am going to do everything that I can to make sure that there are less parents that have to experience the horror of losing their child.