Let me start by saying that I was completely blown away this weekend by the students of UCONN. The HuskyTHON as always is an 18 hour dance marathon to raise money for CT Children's Medical Center. We got to the UCONN campus just before 4 pm, we were bused to the Student Union where the students gave all the families a fantastic dinner of pasta and salad. The students made a beautiful PowerPoint on the history of HuskyTHON. This was our 4Th year attending, so we are old pros and knew what to expect when we walked in. This year, however was unlike any year prior. There was a path from the entrance to the stage lined with students, some holding posters with the kids names all of them cheering. You would have thought a big celebrity or band just walked through the door. It was almost overwhelming for me to see all these kids rooting for our kids like they were Rock Stars. What an amazing experience for my Becca Bean and Adam. This year there was a record breaking (I will use that term a lot in this post) amount of dancers over 1600! I was told yesterday that they actually had to turn down volunteers, because they had more then they needed. PI BETA PHI and the Rainbow Center danced for Becca. There were 75 teams that danced, last year there we 50.
The Opening Ceremonies were so cute. Every child was given an inspirational word to say, Becca's was FUTURE. During the opening speeches it was explained that every dancer had to wear a hospital bracelet for the whole dance marathon. For the rest of the night I hardly saw Becca. I'm sure she gave the girls a run for their money. I saw her long enough to get her to pose with Adam for a caricature. Gary and I stayed with Adam. Adam and the rest of the kids were huge fans of the bouncy houses. Both Becca and Adam took advantage of the fast pass that Becca was given. The fast pass let the kids "cut" in line while waiting for the different bouncy houses. We left around 9:30 Saturday night.
We came back bright and early Sunday morning. Becca brought one of her best friends, Rosie back with her. The first thing all 3 kids wanted to do was the new bouncy house that was up. I think Adam could have been in there all morning. Next it was fun with hula hoops. Do you know how fun those can be? Becca and Adam sure do. Before I knew it, it was time to tell Becca's story. You all know it, most of the students know it. What I can tell you for sure is there is not one student at the HuskyTHON that doesn't know Becca's name. I told the students that as soon as Christmas is over both Becca and Adam ask when the HuskyTHON is. I told them that they rank up there with Santa. They loved it and to my kids it's true! Becca was completely spoiled. Her dancers bought her art supplies, enough to last her a good long time. They made her a Mikey mouse blanket that she has slept since she got it. They made her posters. They treated her like a princess. They played and danced with Adam. Adam came out of his shell this year. He danced on stage with the kids. He played with the students. A staff member of CT Children's, who has known Adam almost all of his life, asked who Adam was. LOL Usually during these events Adam is no more then an arms length from me and would be very shy. Not this year!
About 11:30 am they asked all the students to make a circle around the perimeter of the field house. The families where in the middle. They kids were handed scissors (Do you see where this is going? As soon as I put two and two together I started crying) They asked the kids to cut the hospital bracelets off of the students. As I watched Becca cut one bracelet off after another, I couldn't help but think of how excited I was to do the same thing when she got home. How it felt to take off her leads, to cut her strings so to speak. Many students were crying, all the parents where crying. It was amazing to witness. This was one of my all time favorite moments of all HuskyTHON's that we have ever been to. It is only surpassed by the first one that we went to where Becca was dancing by herself on stage while all the student chanted her name and cheered her on.
At 12 noon the final number was revealed. We got to see what all the students worked so hard for. This was a record breaking year for HuskyTHON. The students raised $304,375.24 for Connecticut Children's Medical Center! $304,375.24!!!!!!! Last year they raised just over $188k. The HuskyTHON is now the 2nd largest fundraiser for CT Children's. To the students of UCONN, thank you! Thanks to you sick, kids can get the care that they need. I am incredibly proud, humbled, impressed and honored to know these students. Your hard work does not go unnoticed. Thank you for letting us be apart of the HuskyTHON year after year. As all of you say, ANYTHING FOR THE KIDS!
As we walked out of the field house Adam looked up at me and asked if we could come back and do this again next weekend. I laughed and told him HuskyTHON 2013 is only 364 days away! The Redmans can't wait!
