IU students participating in this year's 36-hour dance marathon play a game of tag between bands to help keep up their stamina. The IU Dance Marathon Council was established to memorialize the courage and honor the spirit of the late Ryan White and to continue his battle against infectious disease.

Photos by Chris Meyer

Rockin' 'round the clock at IUB Dance Marathon

By Hal Kibbey

A few days after AIDS patient Ryan White died, one of his friends, Indiana University Bloomington student Jill Stewart, sat in the office of student adviser Jeff Jones discussing how IU students could carry on White's name and efforts.

Jones noted that a 48-hour dance marathon at Pennsylvania State University had received top honors in a contest for volunteer efforts the year before. Stewart and 12 other IUB student leaders decided to follow suit, organizing the IU Dance Marathon Council in February 1991, with Jones as their first adviser.

This year, the sixth annual IU Dance Marathon raised a record amount of $153,750.

The funds go toward the establishment of the Ryan White Infectious Disease Center at Riley Hospital for Children at the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis, where White had been treated for the HIV infection he had acquired from a routine blood transfusion that was contaminated.

The marathon action began at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, in Wildermuth Fieldhouse. For the next 36 hours participants ate, talked, played games, listened to live bands and, of course, danced‹any strategy to stay on their feet.

Some of the young people who have been patients at Riley Hospital attended with their families to help motivate the dancers.

The dance marathon's slogan this year was "Chance of a Lifetime, to Give a Lifetime of Chance." Last year there were 500 dancers and this year at least 3,000 students participated in various ways, from dancing to committee work.

The first IU Dance Marathon was Oct. 26-28, 1991. Through the dedication and hard work of students, the Dance Marathon has grown rapidly. It raised $11,000 in 1991, $23,000 in 1992, $63,000 in 1993, $96,000 in 1994 and more than $140,000 in 1995.

Nearly $340,000 has been raised so far for the Ryan White Center. Major donations have come from entertainers Michael Jackson and Elton John, who became friends with White during his illness.

In addition, many satellite events such as the IU Dance Marathon, the Climb for Kids and the IU-Bishop Chatard High School Dance Marathon now raise money for the center annually.

The IU Dance Marathon Council was established to memorialize the courage and honor the spirit of Ryan White and to continue his battle against infectious disease.

In addition to establishing the center at Riley in White's name, the council's goals are to endow a Ryan White Professorship in pediatric infectious disease at the IU School of Medicine, and to support research and public education programs about HIV and AIDS.

The council is an independent IU student organization that supports itself through donations and sponsorships.

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