A small price to pay

Five-year-old Daniel Abbott was born with an immune disorder and now experiences seizures.\nBut from the way the small, brown-haired boy raced around Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning at the Wildermuth Gym in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation during the 16th annual IU Dance Marathon, it was hard to tell. \n"We got here and he hit the ground running," said Shelley Abbott, Daniel's mother. "When everyone stopped dancing for the movie, he was running around and throwing up his hands like, 'What's going on? Let's dance!'"\nAnd he certainly had reason to celebrate. IUDM, which went from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Sunday, shattered last year's fundraising record by more than $240,000. The event raised $920,386.20 for the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease at Riley Hospital for Children, which treats more than 200 children a month, including Daniel Abbott.\n"Unbelievable," IUDM President Josh Wendahl said. "That's just all I can say. Unbelievable. This just proved that if you have your mind set on it, absolutely anything is possible."\nDancers and volunteers who had not slept in two days hugged, laughed and cried as the total was announced, bringing the 36-hour event to a close.\n"It was just fantastic," freshman Andrew Levine said. "It is hard to comprehend that the number of people we had could raise so much money, but it is just fantastic." \nMartin Kleinman, Daniel Abbott's doctor and the director of the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Disease, accepted the check on behalf of Riley. \n"There is so much sadness in the world, and so many things that are wrong," Kleinman said, addressing the participants. "But you are what's right in the world." \nThe check for almost $1 million represented a year's worth of fundraising efforts, which continued until the eleventh hour. Members of Kappa Kappa Gamma went "canning" late Saturday night at Kilroy's Sports Bar to raise more money for the cause, said senior Claire Seyfried, Kappa Kappa Gamma's IUDM representative. The group garnered another $300 in the process. \n"It is a great way to remember and honor our sister Ashley (Crouse, a Kappa Kappa Gamma who was killed in April 2005)," Seyfried said. "And getting to see the Riley kids and where the money is going is just amazing." \nTo keep themselves awake, participants danced and played board games, basketball, four-square and cornhole. Levine, a Sigma Alpha Mu pledge, played "water pong" but said he didn't think staying awake would be a problem. \n"There are worse things than staying up for 36 hours to raise money for these kids," Levine said at 2 a.m. Saturday.\nBy 7 p.m. Saturday, having not slept since 9 a.m. Friday morning, Levine was tired but still chipper. \n"It is easier tonight than last night because you got to see that everything is worth it," Levine said. "We listened to the families talk and that makes you really appreciate the whole thing more." \nActivities also included arts and crafts, games and, a favorite of many children, an inflatable jumping pen. A talent show featured several Riley kids, including 7-year-old Karissa Smith, who sang "Yours and Mine" in a duet with her grandmother, a performance that moved several audience members to tears. \nSmith was born with a cleft lip and palate, her mother Jennifer Smith said. Since birth, she has undergone eight surgeries to repair it, with many more to come in the future. Still, her mother says the hospital is something Karissa loves. \n"She never associates Riley's with pain," Jennifer Smith said. "She is constantly showered with individual attention. That is one thing that Riley does that no one else does."\nThe event also came as a welcome respite for some parents, including Jenni Vise, who said the event was like "having a thousand babysitters."\nHer son Alex was born with a diaphragmatic hernia, which meant he had a hole in his diaphragm that allowed his intestines and spleen to move into his chest cavity, his father Gary Vise said. Riley was the only hospital in Indiana that could deal with the problem. \n"As a parent having almost lost a child, I know this event is going to help other children," Jenni Vise said. "And I am just grateful for that." \nNow, Alex is a happy 12-year-old. He has been coming to Dance Marathon for the past nine years, and, thanks to Riley, his future is bright, Gary Vise said. \nIU hosted its first Dance Marathon in 1991 after incoming freshman Ryan White, who contracted HIV while being treated for hemophilia, died from complications with AIDS. White had been planning to start at IU in the fall, so his close friend Jill Stewart started the event in his honor. \nRiley families and White's mother, Jeanne White, spoke throughout the day Saturday while the Riley kids and their friends and siblings ran around and played with dancers.\n"It is just unbelievable what the students do, all the time and enthusiasm they put in," Shelley Abbott said. "And it is not only the money. They play with the kids and treat them like kings."\nJane Marie Lind has seen the event through since its inception in 1991, she said. Her two sons, who graduated from IU in 1994 and 1999, were both involved in the event from the beginning, she said. She has attended every dance marathon, even after her sons graduated. \n"The first year they raised about $10,000, and I thought 'Wow,'" Lind said. "Then last year they raised $600,000, and I was just blown away."\nBut IUDM members aren't taking a break to celebrate the record amount of fundraising. By next week, the group will already begin recruiting the executive board that will plan next year's IUDM, Wendahl said. By winter, the group will already be fundraising again, he said. \nAs for Wendahl, the fifth-year senior said he will concentrate on bringing his grades up again since "dance marathon has definitely been my highest priority." \nSleep, apparently, would not even make it in the top 10 on Wendahl's priority list. After getting about three hours of sleep per night all last week, Wendahl said at 8:30 Sunday morning that he had been awake since 7 a.m. Friday. But, the adrenaline of the event was still pumping, he said. \n"My back is sore and I am kind of achy, but emotionally and psychologically it's like I just woke up," Wendahl said. "I could do it all over again -- just give me a new body"