The Miracle Maker 2.pdf

The Miracle MakerTerp Thon 2012: Another year of miraclesVol. 1 Ed. 1 May 2012

Inside this issue... p.2~-It’s all FTK-The Terp Thon experience, accord-ing to dancers p.3~ -Terp Thon, broken down p.4~ -Tragedy strikes, Children’s Hospital fights back-Stay connected with Terp Thon

Terp Thon’s 2012 Executive Board reveals the fundraising total. Photo Source: Terp Thon

The most money fundraised in a first year dance mara-

thon: $56,000. The most money fundraised in a sec-ond year dance marathon: $140,000. What do these two facts have in com-mon? The University of Maryland, College Park’s Terp Thon set these re-cords. The first record, es-tablished in 2010 when the organization was founded, surpassed the fundraising goal of $50,000. The second re-cord, established in 2011, sur-passed the fundraising goal of $100,000. The third dance marathon this year aimed high with a fundraising goal set at $300,000, a 30% increased goal from 2011. Dancers set out the entire year fundraising with the stakes

set high. Terp Thon’s executive board members generated email templates to send out to friends and families, asking for dona-tions. The executive board even sent mail for dancers if they pro-vided addresses of friends and families on designated “letter writing” dates. The most popular fundrais-ing technique was canning. Canning is a fundraising tech-

nique where people hit the streets with signs and cans asking people passing by for donations toward their cause. Dancers canned on days of sporting events at the univer-sity such as football tailgates or basketball games as well as on the streets of D.C. This effective technique

provided some dancers with up to $200 in fund-

raising money. Almost 2,000 dancers regis-tered for Terp Thon 2012. With all the combined efforts, the final fun-draising total was $268,000. Al-though Terp Thon fell short of their $300,000 goal, they still set a re-cord for the most money fundraised by a third year dance marathon and provided $268,000 of support for making miracles come true.

Did you know? - Terp Thon broke the fundraising record of any second or third year dance marathon... in only its second year?

-Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals treat more than 17 million patients each year?

-The average college student burns more than 5,000 calories while dancing for 12 hours?

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It’s all FTK So what exactly is Terp Thon? It is a student run organization at the University of Maryland, Col-lege Park that raises money and awareness for Children’s Na-tional Medical Center in Wash-ington, D.C. in association with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN). Terp Thon, as an organiza-tion, likes to summarize its ef-forts with the slogan “FTK”or “For The Kids.” This catchy and contagious slogan symbol-izes the efforts of the organiza-tion, which are ultimately for the benefit of the kids treated at Chil-dren’s National Medical Center. Students at the university par-ticipate as dancers in this year-long fundraiser. Fundraising efforts in-clude letter-writing campaigns

where dancers send family and friends letters asking for donations. They also include canning trips where dancers go into Washington D.C. and ask passer-byers to donate to the cause.

The year year ends with a 12-hour Dance Marathon held in March. Dancers stand on their feet non-stop for 12 hours. Thisrepre-sents the number of hours a nurse

spends standing on his/her feet dur-ing a typical shift. The marathon is a culmination and celebration of a year’s worth of hardwork. It includes teams, bond-ing, games, food and of course,

dancing! Each year Terp Thon also sponsors a select number of “miracle children,” who represent the thousands of children treated at Children’s each year. These miracle chil-dren and their families are invited to attend the dance marathon where Terps make

the kids feel like rockstars. Terp Thon broke records for

first, second and third-year dance marathons benefiting the Chil-

dren’s Miracle Network, according to National Director Zac Johnson. Johnson said, “Terp Thon is doing amazing things each year for the cause!”

Dancers at TerpThon 2012 signed the “FTK” board. Photo source: Terp Thon 2012

The Terp Thon experience, according to dancers

Terp Thon was the best thing to ever happen to College Park.” - Nikki Certner, second year dancer and morale captain

“It was such a fun, eye-

opening and inspiring

experience!”- Melanie

Francer, first year dancer “ It was heart wrenching and re-

warding, and my morale was boosted

the whole time!”- Kirstie Jiongco,

first year dancer

Adam Schnitzer crowd surfs during Terp Thon 2012. Photo Source: Terp Thon

“TERP THON WAS AWESOME! It is amazing seeing the smile on a child’s face and knowing that you are the one who put it there.”- Shayna Kleinberg, first year dancer

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Terp Thon: Broken down

Terp Thon 2012 Banner. Photo Source: Terp Thon 2012

Terp Thon is an organization made up of a hierarchy. At the top is the executive director who works directly with the external and internal directors to make up the steering committee that leads the organization. Next, are the executive mem-bers of the eleven different com-mittees. The executive board is divided between the external and

internal directors depending on their committee’s function. After the executive members, the responsiblities fall onto the captains of the various commit-tees. The captains meet weekly with the executive members. Lastly, general committee members aid the captains and executive members in their indi-vidual committees.

The Miracle Maker4

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“Let’s play freeze tag,” Noble Tousha III shouted to his fellow purple teammates at Terp Thon 2012. The energetic 7-year-old ran around “freezing” the partici-pants in his game of tag. He paid no attention to what set himself apart from the rest of the players: his artificial right leg. Later that same day, an audi-ence of almost 900 dancers at Terp Thon listened with pained expres-sions as Noble’s mother, Holly, shared his story. A pleasant summer evening almost three years ago took a turn for the worst when Noble spent the night fighting for his life. While the whole family was outside, Noble, like always, ran after his father who was on the

Tragedy strikes, Children’s Hospital fights back ride-on lawn mower. Before Noble’s mother could finish screaming he was too close to the mower, he slipped. The realization poured over everyone that Noble was loosing blood, fast. The mower’s spin-ning blade had nipped him in the right leg, cutting off most of the heel, shredding the Achilles’ tendon and ripping away much of the calf muscles. The blade had come within three millimeters of nicking an artery, threatening Noble’s life. Holly told her son, “Every-thing will be all right” while the pair traveled by helicopter to a Virginia hospital. He stayed there for a week, but was then medical professionals transported Noble

to Children’s National Medical Center in D.C. “We wanted a place that specialized in children,” Holly said. Surgeons at Children’s Na-tional hoped to save Noble’s leg but the decision lied between keeping the leg with consequence of years of operations, scarred limb and reduced mobility or am-putating the leg to end the cycle of painful tissue cleaning and risk of infection. “The words ‘kids’ and ‘amputees’ aren’t usually in the same sentence, “ Holly said. However, the decision 24 days after admittance into the hospital was amputation; sur-geons amputated Noble’s right leg a few inches below his knee. His mother claimed the hardest task after the amputation was teaching Noble how to walk on an artificial leg. After much physi-cal training and therapy, Noble now uses his artificial leg without skipping a step. Nothing stops determined Noble. His high spirits and energy motivated all of the dancers at Terp Thon 2012 to keep standing and dancing through the twelve hours. If a child can endure an amputation, college students can endure 12 hours of standing. This newsletter was created by Ashley David for the publics of Terp Thon, specifically parents of students in the organization. [email protected]