Terp Thon Triumph

Student-run dance marathon raises more than $1M for children’s hospital

By Lauren Brown Mar 07, 2017

Preet Mandavia

University of Maryland students just gave sick children and their families more than a million reasons to have hope.

Saturday’s eighth annual Terp Thon Dance Marathon raised $1,001,394, exceeding its ambitious million-dollar goal—and crushing last year’s total by 38 percent—for Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C.

The 12-hour event, which culminated a year of fundraising by the state’s largest student philanthropic group, drew more than 3,000 participants for high-energy dancing and inspirational story sharing by some of the Miracle Kids who have been or are still undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Executive Director Kaiwei Hsu ’17, who started attending Terp Thon as a high schooler when her younger brother, incoming Terp Jaiwen, was a Miracle Kid himself, explains that every Terp participant stands for the 12 hours of the event. That represents the length of a nurse’s shift at the hospital.

“Everything we do is for the kids,” she says. “If nurses can stand for 12 hours for these kids, the students of the University of Maryland can stand for them for 12 hours too.”

Terp Thon now ranks among the nation’s Top 10 highest Miracle Network Dance Marathon fundraising programs, and is the youngest event of its kind to hit the $1 million milestone.

Hsu shares some highlights of this year’s event in this photo gallery. To support Terp Thon, visit Ter.ps/TerpThon17.

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Terp Thon’s Planning Team includes more than 300 students working on 21 committees. The Morale Committee takes the stage at the top of every hour to teach the crowd a segment of a choreographed dance. By the end, the crowd performs the entire dance together. Credit: Preet Mandavia

Jaiwen Hsu, a Miracle Kid and Kaiwei’s brother, kicked off the event’s first fundraising challenge by urging everyone to raise $55 to help him celebrate the 5.5 years he’s been in remission from osteosarcoma. Credit: Preet Mandavia

Tara follows a Terp Thon tradition: Before every Miracle Kid shares his or her story, an air horn plays and Terp Thon participants form a human tunnel on the red carpet for the child to run through en route to the stage. Credit: Preet Mandavia

Christine Lederer, mother of the late Terp Zach Lederer, returned to the event to thank Terp Thon for continuing to support kids like hers. Zach, the men’s basketball team manager, earned international fame with his flexed-muscle pose while he battled brain cancer and appeared at the 2013 Terp Thon, a year before his death. This year, his mother held up a giant image of him “Zaching” at that appearance, while the entire crowd made that pose. Credit: Preet Mandavia

University President Wallace Loh stopped by Terp Thon to tell the dancers how they exemplify the university’s mission as a “Do Good” institution—and to marvel at the sheer size of the group. He also danced with the students and children and distributed turtle pins. Credit: Preet Mandavia

On stage, sisters Caitlin (left) and Brooke tell the crowd how Brooke was diagnosed with leukemia and Caitlin donated the bone marrow to save her life. They sang “Stand by You” by Rachel Platten. Credit: Preet Mandavia

The “For The Kids Wall” asks volunteers, “Why do you dance?” Throughout the event, thousands of students and children and their families write their answers, whether an individual, the name of the team they came with or anything else. Credit: Preet Mandavia

One of the most anticipated parts of Terp Thon is “Power Hour,” when the glow sticks come out and the marathon becomes a rave. Testudo and the Miracle Kids took turns crowd surfing. “You’ve been standing for 10 hours, and you suddenly have a second wind. The energy and excitement are incredible,” Hsu says. Credit: Preet Mandavia

“We knew the potential that the University of Maryland had. It was clear that the university could rally behind this incredible goal. A big goal should scare you—if it doesn’t, it’s not a goal worth working toward. It pushed us every day to work hard,” Kaiwei Hsu says. “Only the fiscal director making the announcement at the end of the night knew our fundraising total, so as soon as he said ‘one,’ the crowd started jumping and crying. It was such a special moment.” Credit: Preet Mandavia

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