Aggiethon falls short of goal
On March 22, Aggies gathered in the Nelson Fieldhouse to celebrate the annual Aggiethon hosted by USU’s Miracle Club. A dance marathon turned block party that raises money for Primary Children’s Hospital.
The Miracle Club, previously named Aggiethon Club, was re-established in January of 2023 and is a club entirely dedicated to philanthropy work for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals as well as Primary Children’s Hospital.
After being on hiatus due to the pandemic, Aggiethon returned this spring semester. In past years, around $35,000 was often raised at each Aggiethon. Miracle Club was hoping to raise around $20,000 this year, but fell short.
At the end of the night, Miracle Club members marched out with paper signs and revealed down the line a total of $16,020.24 raised. This is a little more than half of what has been raised in previous years at the Aggiethon, and short of their goal.
The Nelson Fieldhouse was filled with nine-square, tug-of-war, musical chairs, free pizza and more. There was no cost of entry and all were welcome.
The dance marathon part of the event was led by USU student and Miracle Club member, Janeal Rydalch. Throughout the evening, those in attendance would gather to the front of the Fieldhouse where she would teach a dance to a mashup of songs that she remixed herself. Each section built upon each other to create one choreographed dance at the end of the night. Students were also free to dance during the ‘dirty thirty’ at the beginning of the night, and live music preformances.
When not dancing, playing games, or enjoying free food, Aggies listened to speakers. The three speakers were 13-year-old Nellie, six-year-old Leo, and 12-year-old Hank, all of whom shared stories of their time at Primary Children’s Hospital. Each reminisced about the music and art therapy they had all taken part in during their hospital stays.
“No child should need to spend time in the hospital. But if they have to, Primary Children’s is a pretty awesome place,” said Hanks’s father.
Children’s Miracle program director Julia Saxton attended the event as a representative from the hospital. She explained that the dance marathon is a national movement and that Primary Children’s Hospital serves the largest geographical area of any hospital in the country.
Julia got involved with Primary Children’s while in college studying journalism and later pivoted from her major to continue work in the healthcare field.
“It’s really hard to get around Primary Children’s and not fall in love with it because the mission of keeping the child first and always is so important in today’s society and in a world where very few things feel like they matter anymore. This work does, it really does,” Saxton said.
Chelsey Crowne, cause partnership manager for Children’s Miracles network helped lead the event and headed donation pushes, which is where those at the event would call, text and post, asking for donations.
“I did dance marathon myself as a student at San Diego State University. My best friend died of cancer when I was in high school and dance marathon for me became an outlet to honor and remember her while making a difference for other kids that are in that same position,” Crowne said.
After each donation was made, Aggies were allowed to celebrate by banging a drum once for each time they raised eight dollars. If they raised $16, they would bang the drum twice, and so forth. This was to celebrate the eight years it had been since Hank had his heart transplant.
The evening also saw live music performances from AggieVoice winner Libby Prusso who performed a cover of Circles by Post Malone. As well as local band Wednesday, which is made up of members of the well-known Logan campus social media group Overall Wednesday.
“I believe in the goodness that this creates and the culture that perpetuates of caring about something that’s bigger than ourselves,” Saxton said.