Dance Marathon ran “push week” Nov. 17-21. The executive board’s primary focus was to raise money to the fullest extent for Children’s Miracle Network, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for children’s hospitals.

“The purpose of [push week] is for Dance Marathon to work really hard in a certain amount of time and do as much as possible,” Corporate Sponsor Liv Berger (10) said. “This helps to reassemble the week leading up to the big, annual February event because we just want to keep going and we want to keep pushing to raise as much money as we can.”

During push week, the board ran activities with the goal of maximizing student donations. This included selling dozens of donuts before school, and holding pizza sales during all lunch periods Nov. 21.

“Donut and pizza sales are so important because it allows [the executive board] to have fun fundraising experience during an event that everyone can enjoy with us,” Berger said. “The pizza especially at lunch is really popular because a bunch of students would rather have pizza than something else, like a school or packed lunch. Along with that, I just think that fundraising with food is a really good way to gather funds, no matter the club.”

In addition to the in-school activities, Dance Marathon also collaborated with Panera in Creve Coeur for a “Raise Some Dough” event, where a portion of the proceeds generated from students and families’ food purchases went towards Children’s Miracle Network.

“These kinds of fundraisers that [take place] outside of school are super important for spreading awareness about Dance Marathon [beyond] the high school, and Ladue in general,” Berger said. “It really helps when we do activities like this because a ton of families and relatives can learn about our work.”