As the school year is coming to an end, it is coming close to Dance Marathon’s night of celebration party this upcoming  Saturday, May.18. This year the kids selected to raise money for Will’s Place, a business in downtown Skokie provides job opportunities to adults with special abilities. Will is a Niles West graduate and the kids have been fundraising all year for his business.

Teacher Anthony Comstock, co-sponsor for Dance Marathon, shares a misconception that he hears a plentiful of times about the club.

“A common misconception is that Dance Marathon involves both dancing and a marathon, which is not true it involves raising money for charity and being a good person,” Comstock said.

Comstock has shared a connection to Will, making this year’s event more personal for him. The connection between him and his family is a motivating drive for the excitement of planning this years Dance Marathon celebration.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Will since he was here at Niles West and he is a wonderful kid. His family is wonderful. They have given so much to our school so this is a chance to give back to them. It is always awesome to see all of our students fundraising pay off because they have worked so hard throughout the year, given up free periods, and stayed after school, but for them to be able to actually see how much they have benefited someone is a huge and very exciting moment,” Comstock said.

In preparation for the final Dance Marathon party, the club has been obtaining a DJ, making the signs, getting food donations, and trying to get lawn games going, as the event will be outside this year at the Niles West courtyard from 6-10 p.m. This year the club has been fundraising for the big event for a while now, in April, there was a TBay fundraiser where the staff of Niles West graciously donated a lot of little things for the club. Students were then able to bid on all of trinkets donated, which raised over $1,000 for Will’s Place.

Senior and club member, Lorena Saba, shares more about the activities and fundraisers Dance Marathon will do to raise money for the event.

“The night of is our biggest event of the year. There is a lot of planning and fundraising that goes into making it possible. To raise money our sponsors Mr. Comstock and Ms. Tsekouras share with us upcoming events that we come up with during leader meetings. Some events include sleigh-o-grams, send a crush to a crush, and the hand painting for seniors,” Saba said.

The amount raised this year for Will’s Place is not said yet but gets announced the night of the event. Comstock shares the amount Dance Marathon raised in the past and the collaboration between our district school, Niles North.

“In the past, between Niles West and Niles North, because since a combined effort between the schools, we usually average about $50,000 a year which is a huge boost for whatever the charity is each year. Over the 20 years of Dance Marathon, we have fundraised over $1,000,000 total, so hopefully we will be able to benefit Will’s Place with a good amount of money. North and West Dance Marathon work together on a lot of things and do a lot of similar fundraisers, but it’s cool because it’s the one joint club between the two schools and then the actual night of celebration alternates between the two schools. So North hosted last year and we host this year, but it’s just fun for kids to come together as a common goof at benefiting someone,” Comstock said.

Senior and club member, Saige Bender, has been an executive member of Dance Marathon for three years. She shares her how she feels about the work done this year for the club.

“I’m really proud of all the work that we put in this year, but as always it’s sad for a year to come to an end. I am looking forward to the night of [celebration] on Saturday where we get to celebrate Will’s Place one more time. Will’s Place was amazing to work with, and we definitely made the right choice picking them as out beneficiary this year,” Bender said.

Saba is excited for the end of this year’s charity event, but it is bittersweet as it is the last one she will be attending as a Niles West student.

“Looking back, I will miss the night of events. Each hour has a different theme and it was a blast dressing up. All in all, it was a great club to be a part of because it fostered great ideals and created a bond between all the members,” Saba remarks.