By Anne Marie Sanderson

DanceBlue might be five months away, but registration is currently open for all UK students.

The marathon is open to all UK students, whether they are undergraduate, graduate or professional students.

During DanceBlue, dancers will be sponsored to dance for 24 hours with no sleeping and no sitting.

The marathon will be held March 2-3, 2012, at Memorial Coliseum.

“Teams can be formed by individual students who just want to participate or by members of an organization,” said Tressa Neal, recruitment and registration coordinator for DanceBlue.

Anyone can participate in the student-run philanthropy project. Teams must consist of five students and must nominate a captain who will be in charge of the team.

Dancers are required to raise $325, for a total of $1,625 per team.

The captains are required to attend various meetings throughout the year to get fundraising ideas and updates for the upcoming marathon.

All of the money raised through teams and individual dancers is given to the UK Pediatric Oncology Clinic.

The money is not given to solely focus on cancer research, but is for improving the lives of the children at the clinic.

“The main goal of the marathon is to raise money with hopes of improving the lives of the children while they are staying in the clinic,” said  fundraising coordinator Ethan Ritter. “It can improve their time at the clinic as well as the families involved.”

The majority of the props are donated or purchased from funds provided by Student Government and the Center for Community Outreach.

The philanthropy is one of the fastest growing in the country and has become the largest student-run philanthropy project at UK, as well as in the SEC, Neal said.

Registration forms are available in room 106 of the Student Center and are due on Oct. 21, 2011, at 5 p.m.

The next informational meeting will be held Wednesday in the Center for Student Involvement at 7 p.m. The Team Relations Committee will be available for assistance throughout the year for dancers and captains.

For more information, contact Tressa Neal at [email protected], Brandon Gilles at [email protected] or Ethan Ritter at [email protected].