Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is thrilled to announce HuskyTHON at the University of Connecticut as the Dance Marathon Partner of the Year!

The Dance Marathon Partner of the Year award recognizes outstanding strategic partners that have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to CMN Hospitals through innovative fundraising and awareness initiatives.

In 2020, HuskyTHON:

• Announced fundraising total of $1,520,235 (a YOY increase of 14.4%)
• Increased registration to 3,304 participants (up from 3,166 in 2019)
• Won the Ideal Business Partner Pitch competition at Dance Marathon Leadership Conference

Despite the impact of COVID-19, HuskyTHON continues to be a leader among organizations on their campus and within the CMN Hospitals network. HuskyTHON has collaborated with university administration to pave the way for hybrid and small in-person student events at UCONN and they are celebrated on campus as a model organization for student life. Within the MNDM network, they share their fundraising knowledge and encourage many programs to implement best practices to increase fundraising and participation. In March, HuskyTHON’s 2021 marathon was livestreamed over two days and celebrated an announced total of $1,052,534.21 raised during the 2020-2021 school year.

This photo was taken prior to the pandemic

Although many observers would consider this success to be ‘enough,’ HuskyTHON continues to strive for improvements to its program. With the goal of greater student involvement and increased diversity among leadership and participants, HuskyTHON took the following steps in the 2020-2021 academic year:

• Added a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force to their organization in response to national anti-racism protests.
• Expanded their organization to include committee members for the first time.
• Targeted the UCONN satellite campuses for the recruitment of students, faculty, and staff.

HuskyTHON doesn’t stop at doing the minimum for local kids; they continue to go above and beyond to engage all members of their community to support the patients and families treated at Connecticut Children’s. They are continuously enhancing, enriching, and expanding their engagement into the community.

For all of these reasons, we are proud to name HuskyTHON at the University of Connecticut as the Dance Marathon Program of the Year! Congratulations HuskyTHON and thanks for all you do to change kids’ health and change the future.

On March 13th Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, PGA TOUR officials, and CMN Hospitals’ CEO John Lauck came together in Ponte Vedra, FL during a press conference on the eve of THE PLAYERS to urge the global golf community to Play Yellow for children’s hospitals and help raise $100 million over the next five years.

For years, the Nicklaus family has supported Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals®, recognizing their reliance on donations to fund pediatric care insurance programs do not cover. In partnership with CMN Hospitals, the Nicklaus family, along with support from the PGA TOUR and many of its partners, is encouraging the golf community to fill this funding gap in pediatric healthcare through the Play Yellow campaign.

Outreach for support of the Play Yellow campaign began earlier this year, and the list of core partners grows daily. The list thus far includes: the PGA TOUR, THE PLAYERS, Travelers Championship, Topgolf, Callaway, Srixon, the TPC Network, PGA TOUR Superstore, Marriott Golf, TaylorMade, Titleist, FootJoy and Golf Digest. The results of Play Yellow will be celebrated during the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide May 30 – June 2.

“The PGA TOUR is honored to join Jack and Barbara Nicklaus to Play Yellow,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “With your support, we can help patients at children’s hospitals across North America. For many years, the Nicklaus family has supported children’s hospitals in their home states of Ohio and Florida. Today, the PGA TOUR is excited to join them and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to engage the entire golf world in impacting even more lives with a unique, new initiative.”

Play Yellow stems from the yellow shirts Jack often wore in the final round of tournaments in honor of Craig Smith, the son of a close family friend and who was battling a rare bone cancer. Craig passed way in 1971 at the age of 13. Fifteen years later, on the morning of the ’86 Masters, Jack, at age 46, once again wore a yellow shirt, playing one of golf history’s most iconic rounds and winning his record sixth Green Jacket. “We are inspired by this story and the Nicklaus family,” said Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ President and CEO John Lauck. “They and the PGA TOUR are really driving positive impact at unprecedented levels to support and improve local communities. We’re grateful for their support and the continued impact Play Yellow will make on kids’ health.”

Benefiting from Play Yellow are kids like 9-year-old A.J. Blinn of Jacksonville, Fla., who attended the announcement. A year ago, he had major hip surgery at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville to treat a rare childhood hip condition. Recovery from hip surgery has kept him from most of the sports he loves, except golf. He has remained active on the course, evident by his swing.

“There isn’t a higher calling than helping a child in need,” said Barbara Nicklaus. Jack echoed his wife: “I completely agree. We hope you’ll join the cause and Play Yellow for kids.” Barbara and Jack have a long history and close ties to a number of CMN Hospitals, most notably Nationwide Children’s Hospital in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. The Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide has benefited Nationwide Children’s Hospital since its inception in 1976, and it was The Honda Classic’s move to Palm Beach County and down the street from the Nicklauses’ North Palm Beach, Fla., home that inspired Barbara and Jack to create the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation in 2004.

In the 14-plus years since, the Foundation has raised over $100 million, and their support of pediatric programs in South Florida led renowned Miami Children’s Hospital to rebrand to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Several years later, the entire Miami Children’s Health System was renamed Nicklaus Children’s Health System. There are now 14 Nicklaus Children’s Outpatient Centers spread throughout the state. The foundation has become the primary beneficiary of The Honda Classic, and Barbara has joined the Board of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

So how can you Play Yellow?

1. Donate $18 for 18 holes at PlayYellow.org
2. Grab a yellow shirt, head to the golf course, and post on social media with the hashtag #PlayYellow. Tell us why you Play Yellow and who you are playing yellow for!
3. Create a Facebook Fundraiser of your own to help spread the word and use your network to fundraise for your local children’s hospital.
4. Participate in Play Yellow’s corporate partner campaigns and purchase products that benefit the cause. Check out our corporate partners at playyellow.org

More details about Play Yellow can be found at PlayYellow.org. Follow the cause at Instagram.com/playyellow4kids, Twitter.com/playyellow4kids and #PlayYellow.

Nashville’s El Jefe 96.7 and 105.3 FM  Radiothon “Regalando Amor” (Giving Love) is coming Feb. 14 & 15. This year El Jefe has decided to hold their radiothon right on Valentine’s day, which for the Hispanic community is the day to celebrate Friendship and Love. This year will be  the first time we will be broadcasting from the Seacrest studios at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. During this special event we will also be joined by international singer and actress Jaci Velasquez for a special meet and greet for the kids on Friday Feb 15th. The broadcast will take place from 6am to 7 pm both days. During these times El Jefe personalities will invite their listeners to become Miracle Makers for the kids with a $20 monthly donation. They will also be interviewing patients families and medical personnel, all to raise much needed funds for  the kids at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.

International Singing Star and Actress Jaci Velaquez

This post was submitted by Melissa Hayden (Bruebach) for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals through childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org/guest-post. 

Your wedding day: the day you (probably) have at least thought about at some point in your life, and the day most people dream about. In November 2017, my boyfriend proposed, and we were thrilled to be able to start planning that day that I had been dreaming about! Just a week before that, I had participated in my 5^th Dance Marathon, and spoke for the 4^th time as a “Miracle Child” to share my story. As usual, I left the event feeling inspired, grateful, and full of energy (with very sore feet too, of course). There is absolutely nothing like a Miracle Day event; hearing stories of courage and triumph, dancing with hundreds of others in the room, and celebrating the organization’s amazing ability to raise funds for their Children’s Miracle Network hospital never ceases to amaze me. I am truly a “Dance Marathon addict”, I love everything about the organization, and I have personally seen how much of an impact it has on hospitals and their patients.

Why am I so passionate about Dance Marathon? I have been, and continue to be, fighting for my life for my entire life. I was born two months early at only ~3 pounds, and have had close 30 surgeries/procedures including ~12 brain surgeries, 3 spinal fusions, and shoulder surgery. I have a genetic condition, called FKBP14 related Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and when I was diagnosed I was the 10^th in the world to have it. I also have hydrocephalus, scoliosis, and CRPS, all of which impact my daily life. For Hydrocephalus, the only treatment is brain surgery, and so I have had to always be prepared for an emergency brain surgery, of which I have had 10 so far. Growing up, I missed many birthdays, holidays, and milestones while I was in and out of the hospital. While this was hard and sad in some ways, the hospital was able to make it as fun as possible, because of money raised from organizations like Dance Marathon. They decorated, Santa came, I was gifted a book for my birthday, they truly do everything they can to make a kid feel like a kid again while they’re going through some of the scariest times in their lives. 2012 was a particularly hard year for me, as I had four brain surgeries in four months, and I missed my junior year of college in order to recover. I developed blood clots and had to give myself shots twice a day for over 8 months, and I had gotten so sick my family was told to say their goodbyes. It took me months to gain my stamina back, and almost a year to fully recover. If it weren’t for organizations like Dance Marathon, the hospital might not have had pull out couches in every room. This allowed my parents to be near me at all times, and gave them the option to sleep in my room. Without Dance Marathon, the hospital might not have had money for research, which allows the doctors to study new ways to treat their patients, and I might not have been here today to share this story. All of these experiences gave me a unique perspective when I first started participating in Dance Marathon at St Norbert College, I knew just how much these families needed us, because most of my life, I have been “that family”. I knew just how much of an impact we were having, and that made me want to work that much harder when I was involved.

By now, you’ve figured out just how crazy of a Dance Marathon enthusiast I am, and now here comes the part that still BLOWS MY MIND. While planning our special day we had originally settled on a date in September 2019, but as we planned other parts of the wedding, we realized we wanted to do it sooner than later. As we had already booked a few vendors when we decided to do a date change, we had to coordinate with all of them as to what dates were left available in 2018. It turned out only one date was going to work: November 10, 2018. We agreed to the date, and got back to work planning our wedding that now was almost a whole year sooner! Now comes the crazy part. I still get goosebumps when I think back to when I first found out that St Norbert College’s Miracle Day was on our wedding day! It truly was meant to be. Immediately, I realized we HAD to make Dance Marathon a part of our day, especially because we were already going to be on campus for some of our wedding pictures. We got ready that morning, eager with anticipation for both the wedding and Dance Marathon! After we did our “first look” pictures, Matt and I bee-lined for the Campus Center where Miracle Day was being held. I cannot explain how amazing it was to be able to stop in, if only for a few minutes (we arrived at the chapel with about 20 minutes to spare before the ceremony, whoops, clearly we’ve got our priorities straight). I got to give two of my buddies, other Miracle Children, the biggest hugs which was so special! One of the “Miracle Kids” was Joey Rubin- when we both were SNCDM members he and I found out, in this crazy small world, that we both had the same neurosurgeon in Chicago! He has been incredibly strong as he battled Epilepsy, and we both received treatment at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. We danced it out for a few minutes with the dancers, and then took a group picture with all of the SNCDM members, Miracle Families, and the Dancers (one of my most favorite wedding pictures!), and then we left with full hearts to go get married! We highly recommend crashing a Dance Marathon before you go get married- it was one of the most special parts of our day! It really came full circle for me when we were standing in the group surrounded by hundreds of dancers. Growing up I was one of the “Miracle Kids”, then I became a Dance Marathon member, and then I got to celebrate our wedding with SNCDM. I looked around and realized we were celebrating the wedding that might not have been possible had I not received the very best medical care at a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, and I looked at some of the other Miracle Kids; I knew that someday they might be getting married too, and my heart was SO full knowing that they had this chance because of their Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, and the dancers in the room. It was one of those moments that just fill you up to the brim with joy.

We want to thank St Norbert College Dance Marathon for allowing us to “crash” their day and interrupt their activities. Never stop dancing; you’re dancing for more birthdays, more graduations, and more wedding days! Forever For the Kids, The Hayden’s