Fall 2021 Semester Kickoff

With The University of Delaware’s first in-person semester since March 2020, there is a lot of excitement on campus. Specifically, for UDance, we are so excited to be able to fundraise and spread awareness for childhood cancer in-person again. Let’s rewind a few weeks and see all we’ve been able to accomplish in the first month of the semester:

Aug. 30: Involvement Fair

The day before classes began, UDance participated in the student Involvement Fair! By setting up a table on the green we were able to meet new students and invite them to join our fight against childhood cancer. Members of the UDance Executive Board offered free goodies like UDance water bottles and FTK fanny packs to students for stopping by our table and learning more about our organization and its cause. By the end of the day we were eager to have around 200 new students signed up for UDance 2022!

Sept. 1: Childhood Cancer Awareness Month Began

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. CCAM is a time to recognize the children and families affected by childhood cancers and to emphasize the importance of supporting childhood cancer research and funding. We took the start of this month as an opportunity to remind members of our community Why We Dance with some fast facts:

• 46 children are diagnosed with cancer every school day

• 49 children pass away due to childhood cancer each week.

• Only 4% of the National Cancer Institute’s Funds are dedicated to childhood cancer research.

We also encouraged members of our community to help spread awareness by adding The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation’s facebook profile picture frame to their profile. UDance will continue to raise funds throughout the month to honor our B+ Heroes and all those children fighting childhood cancers.

Sept 2: Harrington Turf Freshman Information Session

The UDance Executive Board took over the Harrington Turf to provide an afternoon where students involved in UDance could meet one another and learn about UDance and our partnership with The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. We encouraged students to get involved and start their UDance fundraising while showing them what our UDance Family is all about. With the help of the Student Engagement team, the rest of the UDance Executive Board, and of course, Insomnia Cookies, over 175 freshman learned about our cause, started their UDance pages! Way to go, Class of 2025!

Sept 3: Honoring Andrew campaign

UDance Dance Marathon’s philanthropic partner, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation® honors the memory of Andrew, a 14-year-old athlete and ‘A’ student from Wilmington, Delaware, who passed away from Childhood Cancer. September 3, 2021 marked Andrew’s 29th birthday, and in his honor UDance along with other dance marathons set off to raise $29,000. In collaboration with B+ Nation, we collectively raised over $26,000 that day through an inspiring day of raising awareness for Andrew and his legacy.

Sept 7- first FTK tuesday at Chipotle

September 7th marked our first FTK Tuesday of the year at Chipotle! Each Tuesday throughout the year UDance partners with a business in our community to host a profit share which not only helps raise funds for UDance but spreads our mission to the larger community. Our profit shares are paired with organizations on campus and the money raised goes directly to their fundraising efforts. Chipotle offered both in-person and in-app ordering with proceeds benefiting UDance and The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. This first profit-share not only ran Chipotle out of both forks and guacamole, but it raised $989.62 for the kids! Check out our events tab to see our schedule of FTK Tuesdays!

Sept 13-17- Canning week

Canning week was the week of September 13th! Canning week is a time for our students to put an extra emphasis on raising money through canning in our community with a fun competition during the week. Many participants across campus joined in on spreading awareness and raising money FTK by going canning this week. Throughout the week there were canners lined up and down Main Street, Newark, and in our surrounding community. Overall that week there were a total of 120 pairs of students who signed up to go canning which allowed us to raise $7,092.83 in just 5 days!  The Women’s Ice Hockey team stepped up to the challenge and accumulated the most canning points throughout canning week. They received additional $250 to their page, as well as an exclusive canning location! 

Sept 14- FTK Tuesday at Grain

We continued our FTK Tuesdays at Grain for the second week of September! There was an excellent turn out of hungry students ready to eat grain FTK!

Sept 21- FTK Tuesday at UDairy

Our third week of FTK Tuesday took place at UDairy Creamery! We took this profit-share to social media by encouraging students to post Instagram Stories of their sweet treats from UDairy and tag us on Instagram.

Sept 27 to Oct 1- Ready, Set, Go RSO!

This week kicked off our week-long fundraising campaign specifically for Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). Delaware Dance Fever raised the most money and received all proceeds from the Beans Coffee House Profit Share on their team page.

Sept 29- Reps Raceway

Representatives from each student organization remained outside on the Trabant Patio from 11AM-2PM until their organization fundraised their goal amount for the day! Reps dressed to the Raceway theme!

Sept 29 to Oct 3- Profit-Share at Beans Coffee House

We wrapped up our Profit-Shares for the month of September with a 5-day long collaboration with Beans Coffee House on Main Street! Students were able to fundraise for UDance while they grab their morning coffee during this week!

We are so proud that we were able to accomplish all of this in one short month, but it doesn’t stop there! Stay tuned for more exciting campaigns, events, fundraisers, FTK Tuesdays, and more the rest of the semester.