Spring ’19 Volunteering

During my spring semester, I spent a lot of time raising money for Buckeyethon, which is a dance marathon at The Ohio State University that collects funds for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Downtown Columbus. After months of asking family and friends to donate, February 9 was finally the day of the dance marathon. I helped to raise to raise over $34,000 as a part of the Dunn Scholar’s team and over $1.7 million as a university. Though the 10 hours that I spent in the Ohio Union on that Saturday may seem like it was all fun and games, it was as a result of hard work towards a good cause. I spent my time playing Gaga ball will the Buckeyethon families and busting a move in the silent disco, not to mention taking in all of the hard work and fundraising that it even took for everyone to get to where we were. Volunteering at Buckeyethon helped me as a leader because it allowed me to directly see who it was that my fundraising was affecting rather than having no clue where it was going or who it was helping – we were able to build bonds and actually get to know some of the children who have received treatment at Nationwide. As a result of this experience, I am a better leader because I have now seen first hand the people that I am helping and this can help me in the future when it comes to being a leader in a group and working together to reach a goal, which was what I did when raising money with the rest of the members in the Dunn Scholars Buckeyethon team. Overall, my first Buckeyethon was an experience that I will never forget and I’m already counting down the days until next year’s!