Over $50,000 was raised on Sunday at the University of Rhode Island’s fifth in-person RhodyTHON event, aimed at supporting the young patients of Providence Rhode Island’s Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
The event is a dance marathon, meaning that from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., members of the RhodyTHON committee danced nonstop in the Mackal Field House.
RhodyTHON was adopted from the original THON from Pennsylvania State University, which began in the early 1970s. The program is through the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, and has become widespread at different universities throughout the United States.
The event has been huge for students since it began in the spring of 2018, said RhodyTHON Executive Director Grace Heppes.
“It broke the record in its breakout year as the most successful first year dance marathon based on the ratio of participants, 2,210, to the amount raised, $172,208.46,” Heppes said.
Ever since then, RhodyTHON has been hosting events all year to raise money for Hasbro Children’s Hospital, including restaurant fundraisers, paint nights and basketball games.
Each year, every THON event has what they call Miracle Kids, which are children who have had long-term care at the hospitals they are fundraising for.
“They are children treated at Hasbro that we sponsor,” Heppes said
This year, RhodyTHON had seven Miracle Kids to sponsor, ranging in age from 7 to 11 that were in attendance at the event.
One of these kids is 7-year-old Cullen. He and his mom, Kerri Dailey, got to go on the RhodyTHON stage and speak about his diagnosis of severe Hemophilia.
“When Cullen was 8 months old, he was diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder that would stay with him for the rest of his life,” Dailey said.
Cullen sold lemonade outside of the Mackal Field House to help refresh the event’s participants.
Saoirse, another Miracle Kid, also got to take the stage to share her story. She was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, a kidney cancer that mainly affects children.
She was accompanied by RhodyTHON’s external director, Isabell Leggett, as well as members of her family on the main stage.
“During a time of emergency, Hasbro was Saoirse’s parent’s first and only option,” Leggett said.
Each event also has a Champion Child, a child chosen by the represented hospital whose story is told throughout the entirety of the event’s programming.
This year, RhodyTHON’s Champion Child was 8-year-old London, who has Spina Bifida, a birth defect where a baby’s spinal cord does not develop correctly, and Arnold-Chiari Malformation. This is a condition where parts of the brain tissue extend into the spinal canal.
London also got to take the stage, accompanied by Leggett, to share her story. London loves music, but her biggest dream is to be a blackbelt in karate, according to the RhodyTHON website.
RhodyTHON was filled with dances, raffles and face painting. RhodyTHON’s Greek Life Chair Ryan Meehan even shaved his head after raising $850.
URI organizations in attendance included the Rhody Rhapsodies, Campus Recreation, URI Emergency Medical Services and various fraternities and sororities.
This year, the turnout at the event was bigger than in the past, Heppes said. Due to COVID-19, the event turned virtual for a few years, and only recently became in person.
While raising money for Hasbro is a huge part of the event, Heppes said she hopes the event can do even more than that.
“I hope RhodyTHON inspires students at URI to help kids who have suffered more in their short lifetime than most of us ever will,” Heppes said.
At the end of the event it was revealed that RhodyTHON raised over $50,000 for Hasbro Children’s Hospital. Since the creation of the event, URI alone has been able to raise over $600,000 for the hospital.
For more information about ways to help RhodyTHON, visit their website rhodython.wixsite.com or go to their Instagram @rhodython.