Student Government raises funds for DanceBlue

By Anne Halliwell

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The Student Government Association donated one dollar to DanceBlue for every follower they gained between 12 a.m. Monday and 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday up until they reached 6,000 followers.

The SGA Twitter page began with 3,877 followers Monday morning, wrote Blair Hoover, SGA’s director of public relations, in an email to the Kentucky Kernel.

The maximum donation, then, would be $2,123 to the annual dance marathon.

SGA had 5,370 Twitter followers at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

DanceBlue raised $1,436,606.24 in 2014, according to the event’s web page. The 2015 DanceBlue marathon will take place on Feb. 14.

All of the donations this year will go to the Golden Matrix Fund, which benefits the Kentucky Children’s Hospital Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic, wrote DanceBlue PR chair Michael Danahy, an integrated strategic communications senior.

“One of the most special moments for everyone at DanceBlue is the big reveal at the end of the marathon, so in order to protect the surprise, we do not share our fundraising total until the event itself,” Danahy wrote in the email. “However, we have been tirelessly working since last year’s marathon to do as much as we can for the cause and things are going really well.”

SGA’s donation was funded by the organization’s promotions fund, Hoover wrote in the email.

The SGA Twitter account and student body president Jake Ingram tweeted reminders to their followers throughout the day.

“Supporting @UKDanceBlue was never easier,” Ingram tweeted at about 11 a.m. “For every new follower to @uksga we’ll donate $1! #FTK #DB15.”

DanceBlue uses the phrase “For The Kids” to restate the purpose behind its fundraising efforts.

The DanceBlue event itself is funded through dancer fees and corporate sponsorship, Danahy wrote in the email to the Kentucky Kernel.

“DanceBlue is a completely student-run organization and that is something that makes us very proud, but we do appreciate the support of the campus and community,” Danahy wrote in the email. “That’s the best part DanceBlue; we are one campus united for the kids.