Standing for six hours sounds easy, and people do it on accident when they're not thinking about it. But imagine not having the option to sit down for six hours.
Those participating in Dance Marathon Saturday afternoon spent six hours dancing, participating in other activities and standing to raise money for Riley's Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.
"I didn't think it was going to be [difficult to stand for the entire six hours] because you get busy and you realize you're on your feet a lot throughout the day," junior Jake Weeks said, adding that it was difficult. "You just remember what you're there for."
Sophomore Nicole Darnall echoed Weeks' sentiment.
"It was definitely exhausting," Darnall said. "You don't really think about how much it wears you out because the point of it is to stand for all six hours to stand for those who can't."
The idea to start a Dance Marathon at DePauw University began with three sophomores: Thomas Johnson, Abby Snively and Ellie Sheffield.
"The names that might be up there might be Abby, Ellie and I," Johnson said, "but we had an executive council of 30 people, who each put in countless hours of work."
Darnall was also one of the members of the executive council.
"I helped organize the event and kind of get everything together," Darnall said. "Because it was our first year having a dance marathon at DePauw, there was just a lot of preliminary steps that we needed to take."
The duration of Dance Marathons can vary: from the six hour Dance Marathon at DePauw to the 36 hour Dance Marathon at Indiana University, Bloomington.
"We chose six hours because it was our first year," Darnall said. "A lot of times having the longer time period it's going to be more difficult to perk someone's interests. DePauw students are very active in a lot of organizations and things like that. This is just a way to make sure it fit into a lot of peoples schedules."
Johnson thinks that the six hour duration was the best option.
"For a first year program, I think six hours was the ideal amount," Johnson said.
The team had to work around formals that occurred over the weekend.
"By changing our time period from noon to six, we were able to accommodate more people who were going to formals," Darnall said.
Throughout the day, those participating learned a seven minute dance routine that included songs like the "Friend's" theme song "I'll Be There for You" amd Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty."
"At the very end, right before they revealed how much money we earned, we got to put the dance all together and we got to present it to the kids and the people who were there from Riley," Weeks said.
They also participated in various activities such as knock out and birdie on a perch and heard testimonies from five families with children who had been treated at Riley's Children's Hospital.
For Weeks, the moving aspect of the day was hearing the testimonies.
"It really put a face to what we were fighting for," Weeks said. "There's all these causes to be a part of, but you never really see a first-hand account of who it's helping."
Johnson believes the testimonies helped people stand for the specified amount of time.
"To hear what the money is going to really makes people want to stay involved for the six hours and gives them the strength to keep on standing," Johnson said.
The group's original goal was $10,000, but after hearing the average raised by first-year programs with similar demographics, they lowered the goal to $5,000.
"We ended up raising $13,360.25," Darnall said. "For a first year program at a school of our size, schools usually only raise around $5,000 so we almost tripled the average."
Indiana University's Dance Marathon is now the second largest in the country.
"For some perspective, IU in their first year raised $9,000," Johnson said.
The group hopes to make Dance Marathon an annual event.
"I hope that people realize how much we can change something because just by having the speakers there it occurred to me just how much Riley impacts peoples lives," Darnall said. "I hope that people can see that that was not in any way a waste of six hours."300