UC Dance Marathon Sets $100k Fundraising Goal to Benefit Sick Kids

University of Cincinnati business students may not have known what the acronym FTK stands for but after learning more in a marketing class, they are willing to go the distance to help promote it.

FTK, For The Kids, is the acronym (and Twitter hashtag) associated with the UC Dance Marathon, one of UC's largest student-led fundraising efforts. The Nov. 12 event directly benefits children hospitalized at the No. 3 world-ranked Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Lindner College of Business students Shawn Murphy, BBA ’19 (marketing/sales) and Anthony Durso, BBA ’19 (operations/marketing) are spearheading campus efforts to raise awareness and $100,000 for the cause, more than double last year’s $40,000 sum.

As members of the UC Dance Marathon executive committee, Murphy, vice president of marketing, and Durso, committee chair, enlisted the help of nearly 600 students in Professor Jane Sojka’s three Intro to Marketing courses. As a class project, students are to devise a marketing strategy that raises awareness and participation.

Murphy and Durso, along with representatives from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and “champions” (families and patients directly impacted), presented the project to students on Aug. 30. After a presentation, ideas on how to entice the UC community to participate flowed, from campus sidewalk chalk messages to flash mobs to Greek life and corporate involvement.

“Few large-lecture classes add an experiential learning component, but what makes this project unique is that it is student driven,” Sojka said.

Her intro classes range from 200 to as many as 600 students in a given semester, and those classes take on realistic marketing projects such as selling out Nippert stadium, increasing survey participation and newspaper readership.

Students will make their recommendations on Oct. 11. The 12-hour Dance Marathon will take place from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Nov. 12 at Fifth Third Arena, with a final fundraising tally announced on Nov. 15. Registration is $10, with a minimum fundraising goal of $50 that entitles participants to a T-shirt, food and 12 hours of dancing “For The Kids.”

UC is among 350 schools around the country that raises funds and awareness for the international nonprofit Children’s Miracle Network that benefits children’s hospitals throughout North America.

The UC Dance Marathon fundraiser benefits the local network chapter at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where 100% of proceeds benefit the hospital’s “champions.”