UA Dance Marathon Raises $300k for Children’s Hospital

The University of Alabama Dance Marathon's annual fundraising BAMAthon earned $303,126 to benefit Children's of Alabama hospital in Birmingham.

BAMAthon is the culmination of a year's work for UADM, the University's largest on-campus philanthropy and student group. While fundraising nights and theme days on campus throughout the year are great at raising awareness, the BAMAthon is by far the group's largest event each year.

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In 2020, UADM recruited over 1,500 participants for its main event and saw the funds they raised increase 30% over 2019 totals.

This year's BAMAthon was UADM's tenth event, and the student group has raised nearly $2 million for the Birmingham hospital in that time.

"The pandemic has forced everyone on campus to get creative, but for Dance Marathon, it’s also forced us to be resilient,” said Josh Britt, UADM president. “In all honesty, every single dollar raised this year was something we didn’t expect, and something we wanted to celebrate."

UADM was initially created back in 2011 as part of the nationwide Dance Marathon movement, which aims to get college and high school students involved in fundraising.

“Something that has really been the foundation of our year was the phrase ‘Kids Can’t Wait,’” said Britt. “For us, this means the patients and families at Children’s of Alabama don’t get to wait for a vaccine to roll out to get back to fighting for their health. These patients and families don’t get to take it easy, hop on Zoom and zone out during their hospital stays. They don’t get to take a break, and for that reason, neither should we."