Searching The Internet FTK

If you’ve been following our Twitter account (@RUDanceMarathon) you probably noticed that we’ve made reference to GoodSearch and Goodshop.  In case you’ve missed those, GoodSearch is probably one of the coolest, an easiest way that anyone can support DM.  GoodSearch and GoodShop turn every web search you make into money for a charity of your choice (hopefully RUDM if you’re reading this).  Best of all, it requires almost no work to set up.  If you want to get started searching FTK check out the slideshow below for how to do it.

 

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And that’s it, now every web search you make through the GoodSearch toolbar will donate $.01 to DM.  It may not sound like much, but everything counts, an it begins to make a difference in large numbers.

69 Days until DM 2012.

 

Anything You Need To Know About Volunteers (Hopefully)

Ahhh, talk about being rushed, we’re barely back from break and we’re already accepting applications for the newest addition to this year’s Marathon: Volunteers.  If you’ve never heard about Volunteers before, they’re the position which we have instituted this year to take the place of committee members.  Over the past few years, we found that CMs weren’t being utilized to their fullest potential for a number of reasons, resulting in them having an unfulfilling DM experience.  As a result, we’ve changed the position to Volunteers this year in hopes that everyone at Dance Marathon 2012 will have an amazing experience.  If you’re unsure about whether or not being a Volunteer is for you, we’ve compiled a list of some common questions you may have, along with their answers.

What exactly do Volunteers do?

Volunteers will work a minimum of one 5 hour shift during Marathon weekend and will be helping with Dancer Safety, serving food, running games, helping maintain the facility, and any other tasks that may come up throughout the weekend.

Is there any Registration fee?

Yes, there’s a $15 dollar registration fee, which covers the cost of the Volunteer t-shirt and the Volunteer orientation which will take place on March 1^st.  However, if you sign up today, January 17^th, that registration fee is only $5 dollars.

What is the minimum amount of money that volunteers are required to raise?

The Volunteer minimum is $100 dollars, which is due by the orientation date, March 9^th(Edit: I messed that up the first try, the money is due March 9th, apologies).

Where do Volunteers sign up?

Volunteers sign up at the same place as everyone else, at  http://embracekids.donordrive.com/event/rudm2012 and clicking the register now button.

That’s most everything, registration is open until February 20^th, so if you have any questions between now and then feel free to get in touch with us via Facebook (www.facebook.com/RUDanceMarathon) or twitter (@RUDanceMarathon)

73 Days until DM 2012

75 Days Until DM??? What??

Being back in New Brunswick is a stark reminder that the work-free peace provided by Winter Break was illusory, and we have plenty of work to do.  I spent the last three weeks taking care of non-DM goals (ensuring Christmas was awesome and staying alive for 11 days in Costa Rica), but now that the semester has almost started it’s time to put that all on the back burner.  We have only 10 or 11 weeks until Dance Marathon, and it seems like we have 3x as much work during that time as we did during the first semester.

The work is starting literally right away, as DM is going to be one of the few groups at Rutgers working on MLK day for our annual DM Work Day.  I don’t remember much of the Work Day from last year, but I do recall that it was one of the last opportunities before DM to have all of the Captains, Assistant Directors, and Directors, together in one place. Although I’ve had some fun experiences over winter break, I’ve sort of started to miss the weekly shenanigans that CPT meetings engendered, so finally having the chance to see everyone again and catch up will be very welcome.

Luckily I won’t have to wait long to get well acquainted with them all again, as we have two major media campaigns before February, both which will likely result in a number of long nights in the computer lab.  First, after a couple of abortive attempts to get it going, we’ll be revealing the theme.  Our Entertainment team spent the winter working on videos to reveal their themes and the first week will be spent editing those.  Follow that up with our photo campaign which will put the “Rules of Dance Marathon” to shame in the awesome category and I have a feeling that me and Photoshop will become awfully snuggly over the coming week.

Oh, and in case you’ve been wondering about Volunteers, the application for those is pretty much done and ready to be released.  We’ll be doing a couple of final touch-ups during the work day, and then the application will go live on January 17^th.  Just stay tuned to our website and social channels and it should be pretty impossible to miss the release.

Alright, the work day is now in T-minus 1 hour and I still need to eat breakfast and get dressed to look all professional and stuff.  It’s not quite the home stretch, but the fact that we’re beginning to see the turn home is pretty awesome, hopefully it will be an awesome semester.

 

75 Days until DM 2012

Dancing Around the Nation – Part Two

Dancers!

Last time we travelled to the University of Iowa to take a peek into their Dance Marathon, and learned quite a bit! Our next trip, to see fellow Dance Marathon participants, takes us to the Windy City! 

Chicago is home to Northwestern University; an institution that is regarded as one of the first schools to implement Dance Marathon. Started in 1975 by the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, Dance Marathon at Northwestern has blossomed into one of the biggest philanthropic events on campus. The results, over the years, have been massive; the initial Marathon raised just over nine thousand dollars, whereas last year alone, Northwestern raised just over one million dollars! 

Northwestern University prides itself on donating to thirty different organizations; and for good reason: since 1975, they have donated over twelve million dollars! Organizations such as the American Heart Association, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Institution have all benefitted from Northwestern’s hard work and dedication.

However, no matter the organization or charity, Northwestern University’s Dance Marathon remains a class act. So much so, in fact, that they were awarded the distinction of being the ‘Most Influential College Organization’ at the third annual Classy Awards in San Diego, California. 

Northwestern will be holding its Dance Marathon this year on March 2, and have partnered with The Andrew McDonough Be Positive Foundation to tackle childhood cancer. To learn more about Northwestern University’s fantastic Dance Marathon, visit their website:  http://nudm.org/. 

Hope everyone is having a great winter break! Until next time, FTK! 

-Sachet

Dancing Around the Nation – Part One

Dance Marathon is huge, here at Rutgers. We all know that! However, it isn’t just the Scarlet Knights that take part in such a great event; Universities and colleges across the United States partake in Dance Marathon in order to help children triumph over cancer. 

One such school is the University of Iowa. Last year, 2000 students took part in Dance Marathon raising a massive $1,220,146.17! The University began participating in Dance Marathon in 1995, and since then, they have raised nearly ten million dollars for the kids! 

Unlike Rutgers – which donates its funds to the Embrace Kids Foundation, the University of Iowa donates the money they raise to University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. The donations are divided up into four parts: 

1) Emotional Support: Programs focused on helping children and their families maintain a sense of normal life.

2) Financial Support: Assisting families with hospital and other medical costs.

3) Staff & Research: Funding to update facilities and equipment, while also creating more staff positions.

4) Educational Resources: Supports programs designed to educate children and their families that have been newly diagnosed.

Although the destination may be different, the journey, for both Rutgers and the University of Iowa is the same. Both institutions take pride in helping children win the battle over cancer through Dance Marathon. 

The University of Iowa will be hosting their Big Event in less then 30 days, on February 3 & 4! For more information, check out their fantastic website (http://dancemarathon.uiowa.edu/)  to learn more about how they get down.

Tune back in next week, as we explore Dance Marathon at another University! 

FTK!

-Sachet

99 (or rather now 98) Days of DM on the Wall

99 Days, I think the DM Gods timed that one pretty epically considering it was also my last day of exams.  Okay, if there are DM Gods they probably don’t schedule things according to my exam schedule, but the fact that the events sync up.  The fact that we’re into double digit days could be a bit scary, it’s fallen at a very unique time in The Marathon which is keeping any possible fear at bay.

Hitting Winter Break not only spells a break from studies, but also a break from the constant event planning which charectarizes DM during the year. Instead, it gives a good chance to look back and look at what we have accomplished since we last came together as a CPT.  We had our first summer canning weekend, revamped our Morale Captains, and had an FTK Day which can safely be considered wildly successful.  All of that was in addition to  our DM Alumni also chartering the first official RUDM Alumni Organization.

When it’s all listed out like that it seems surprising that we’ve accomplished so much in addition to continuing on all of our past events (Football games, bar nights, etc). Looking back, everything seems like it’s just sort of fallen naturally into place, as if it was always meant to be that well. Oh well, I suppose that’s the benefit of being 2 months distant from making “Rules of DM” posters until 3 AM.

The beginning of Winter Break also represents the beginning of planning out the lead-in to DM 2012, which is a whole separate set of projects..  We have our second set of posters, a DM workday, more canning, Spirit week, team profiles, and a whole lot more that I won’t bother listing out now.  After all, the next couple of weeks are about taking a break from everything, and I intend to use those to their full advantage before the inevitable tidal work comes and hits me.

So, in conclusion, if you’re celebrating a holiday around now, I hope you and your family have the best of times doing so. If not, I hope that you have an awesome winter season anyway.

Sitting here not a couple hours after our DM holiday party is sort of a unique feeling of reflection. More than any of the other events of this school year, that really drove home just how far along we are in this process. As of today I’ve had this position for just over half a year, and having the holiday party has put me in a reflective mood about just how much all of us have accomplished, and how much more we have to go.

Last weekend was our second canning weekend of four, and if you were around George and Albany once or twice you likely saw me and some friends of mine out canning trying to raise money for Embrace Kids.  True to form, I also didn’t heed my own advice and ventured off without gloves both days.  Unsurprisingly, this resulted in some very cold hands and even a couple of frozen ears.  I persevered though, and thanks to some real nice friends from Saladworks on Albany I was able to raise over 100 dollars, which was sweet! A big thank you to everyone who donated both to me (if any of you are reading this) and all of our other canners.

If anyone is curious about how to deposit money, either check out our youtube video refer to this blog post, or email dmcanning@marathon.rutgers.edu

In other non-canning related matters, we also had a photoshoot for our next awesome project that team Community Outreach is working on.  Much like the Rules of Dance Marathon campaign it was borne of me having too much time on my hands, meaning it might be more than a little crazy.  Even if it is, we got some awesome support from our Dancers as models, and will hopefully have those coming out at the beginning of next semester, along with the big theme reveal.

Last but not least, if any of you are like me and are about 2 weeks behind on your holiday shopping, don’t forget to use goodsearch. If you’re not aware of goodsearch, it’s a service that allows for a portion of your purchase to go towards the charity of your choice.  It’s something on the order of 5 percent depending on the retailer, which certainly adds up.

If you haven’t already, be sure to head over to our Youtube channel to check out the spiffy new holiday card.  Much like the card says, happy holidays!

105 Days until DM 2012.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

It isn’t common that something comes across my email inbox which makes me do a triple take in confusion, but that happened earlier this week with the second canning email that went out and the policy on our new signs.  Since the whole thing is new and all happened very fast, I figured some other people might also be unsure about what’s going on with them.  If you’ve already got a good grasp on what’s going on, don’t worry about the rest of this blog post.  However, if you’re still a little uncertain read on and hopefully everything will get cleared up.

First, what are they?  The signs are a gift from Embrace Kids which they gave to Dance Marathon to help make our canning efforts more successful.  If you haven’t seen one before, they’re about 28 inches by 18 inches wide and they sport a spiffy Rudy, the Embrace Kids logo, and the phrase “Help kids beat cancer”.  I’ll hopefully be getting a picture up tomorrow, but we have one hanging out in the office when you come by that’s worth checking out.

Second, and probably more important to you all, what’s the policy with them?  The policy regarding signs is that every organization is required to have a sign for every corner that they are canning on.  So, if an organization is canning at two intersections, they must have a sign for each of them.  If you are just going canning with friends and are participating as an unaffiliated Dancer/Captain, then you aren’t required to have a sign.

Third, why are we requiring only affiliated Dancers/Captains to have a sign?  The answer is because we want to get a long lifetime out of these signs and organizations have a legacy at this university that individuals don’t have.  Thus, by giving them to orgs, we ensure that these can be used well into the future, and their lifetime is maximized in the process.

So, I hope that clears up any questions that anyone has.  If you’re heading out canning this weekend don’t forget to tweet us your pictures with the hashtag #RUDMCanning.

-112 Days until DM 2012

Canning, Round 2

Wowzers, canning v 2.0 is almost here, like three (maybe two depending when this goes live) days away almost here.  I can remember back when I first looked at the schedule for this year and thought that canning weekends would never get here.  Now we’re almost through the second one and it feels like no time has passed at all, crazy how time flies by when there’s always something just over the horizon.

As for canning 2.0, not much has changed from last time.  We still have reserved permits for intersections all around New Brunswick, as well as a couple in Milltown, Princeton, and Edison; similarly, the shifts are still the same: 9AM-12PM, 12PM-3PM, and 3PM-5PM.  Lastly, all canners still need to pick up a reflective vest.  If you’re still in the market for a vest, they can be had on Amazon for five dollars here: http://www.amazon.com/Neon-Green-Fluorescent-Safety-Zipper/dp/B003VKWQBC/ref=pd_sim_hi_3.  Similarly, if you need to find the DM can wrapper, it can be found over on our official website marathon.rutgers.edu.

A couple other things to note about canning this time around, which will be applicable to everyone:

1. It’s December, so it’s probably going to be a little cold, so dress accordingly, and don’t forget gloves.  Take it from someone who forgot about it last time, canning without gloves is pretty sad.

2. Everyone needs to sign a canning waiver.  Yes, even if you signed one last time, you still need to sign one this time.  However, if you happen to still have your permit then you’re good to go.

3. If you have a group of four people, you are required to have one of our new sweet Embrace Kids signs.  Not only do they look awesome, but also, by having a sign it is clear who DM canners are supporting, increasing our visibility in the New Brunswick community.

Other than that, if you haven’t signed up already it isn’t too late to register for a time slot.  For that, and all of your other canning questions email dmcanning@marathon.rutgers.edu, and they’ll get your situation straightened out.  I’ll be at George and Albany Street, so come by and say hi if you’re in the area on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

-Jon

116 days until DM 2012

New Alumni Dancer Policy

One of the goals of this year’s CO team was to improve the way that we kept in touch with the DM Alumni, and we feel that we’ve done that on a number of fronts, including supporting the creation of an official DM Alumni Organization.  Continuing on this, we have wanted to overhaul our Alumni Dancer policy to something which will be sustainable for the future.  After giving it some thought, we settled something which we feel will both encourage Alumni involvement and make them an important part from DM 2012 onward.

Under the new system, we’re doing away with having Alumni have a per-hour minimum.  Instead, The Marathon will be broken up into eight four-hour blocks for which Alumni can register for as many as they like.  To go along with the change in format, we are also changing the fundraising requirement to $100 dollars per 4 hour block, part of which will cover food, t-shirts, and other Dancer fees.  There will still be no registration fee as an Alumni Dancer.

The process for registering is much the same as before, and starts with going to http://embracekids.donordrive.com/event/rudm2012 and choosing “Alumni Dancer” as the group to join under  Once registered, Alums will work with our AD of Alumni Relations, Mandy Frantz, to figure out in which block(s) they would like to dance.

Why the change?  We felt that the old Alumni Dancer policy didn’t provide for any really structured role for Alumni Dancers, and found that many of them were choosing to donate without becoming directly involved DM after they graduate.  We want DM Alums to feel like they’re an active part of Marathon weekend, and we hope that by changing the Alumni Dancer policy more Alumni will choose to take an active role in DM as Dancers.  In this vein, we are also opening up the opportunity for Alumni to be Volunteers, allowing them to take a role in ensuring DM 2012 runs smoothly.

If you have already registered as an Alumni Dancer, don’t worry, we won’t be changing the game on you.  Everyone who is already signed up as an Alumni Dancer should be receiving an email from Mandy, asking them what policy they would like to dance with.  However, everyone who registers from here-on-out will be under the new policy.

That’s pretty much it for now.  If you have any questions about alumni dancing feel free to email them to Mandy Frantz (alumni@marathon.rutgers.edu), comment here, or tweet us at (@RUDanceMarathon).  Happy Dancing!