Cal Poly spends Miracle Week 2019 Banding Together for the kids

This post was submitted by Sophia O’Keefe for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals through childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org/guest-post.

Pre Miracle Week Video:

Miracle Week 2019, which took place Jan. 21-25, was a successful push week for Cal Poly Dance Marathon. The theme was “Band Together”, which was symbolic of our Cal Poly campus banding together to do more for the kids.

What the week looked like:

Each day of the week had a sub theme: Monday was “Fuel Up”, in which we held a restaurant fundraiser with Blaze Pizza. Tuesday was “Inspiration”, where we focused on telling others about Miracle Kids and our cause, setting the tone for the rest of the week. Wednesday was “Registration”, where we encouraged people to sign up by announcing that the price to register would increase after that day. Thursday was “Fundraising”, which consisted of people getting pied in the face for donations. We also held our Miracle Week fund reveal that night during a pancakes and PJs hangout on campus. Friday was “appreciation”, where we encouraged all fundraisers to thank their donors. Our Miracle Week recap video also went up this day (watch it below!)

Miracle Week Recap Video:

During the week, the “Cal Poly P” (a large P sitting on a hillside above our campus) was decorated to  spell out “CPDM”. While this served as a key attention grabber for the whole campus, CPDM members held booths on campus throughout the week, inviting others to register, fundraise and learn about our cause. Band-aids with Miracle Kids’ names on them were handed out to tie in with our theme of “Band Together”. Social media posts included things like “vlogs” by various CPDM members explaining what was happening each day, and graphics that helped aid dancers in their fundraising efforts.

By Friday Jan. 25, we raised over $5,000 for Miracle Week, registered 117 new dancers and 9 new teams were made (with a total of over 500 dancers). We have MORE (“MORE” is our overall theme) to do for the kids before our Big Event on Feb. 22 to reach our goal of $80,000!

Sophia is a senior journalism student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the PR Chair for Cal Poly Dance Marathon. This is her third year as part of CPDM Executive Board, and she and the rest of her team are aiming to make more miracles happen for their 2019 Big Event. Sophia dances because she believes all children deserve an equal chance to live amazing lives and that we can all help make that happen.