Year: 2001
Amount Raised: $504,222.77

Dance Marathon 7 started off with the grand opening of the University of Iowa Dance Marathon Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in the spring of 2000. The spring also brought a big change to the Big Event. After much debate, the Executive Committee decided to shorten the duration of the event from 30 hours to 24 hours. The change inspired our motto for the year…A Day of Dance to Give Children a Chance.

While the duration change was the biggest news, DM 7 also created Friends of DM and initiated the Spirit Dancer program (76 dancers the first year!), allowing people to help raise funds, show support for the dancers, and experience the event first hand for a shorter duration of time.

Dance Marathon 7 also had a fundraising goal of $500K. While the target was ambitious, the executive committee made the goal publicly known so all DM 7 participants knew what they were working for throughout the year. The development committee brought in more sponsorships while the events side worked hard to register over 1,000 dancers, the highest number in DM history. After 24 hours of dancing, food, fun, tears, and laughter, the tote board read $504,222.77, which was a Dance Marathon milestone to remember.