When the school year begins in August, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an activities fair that does not have a DanceBlue table. Every year, hundreds of students register with a team and fundraise all year with the goal of dancing on the floor during the most fun-packed and inspiring 24 hours of the year. However, not pictured among the hundreds of students dancing the night away during the marathon are the members of the Lexington community who have also made invaluable contributions to DanceBlue throughout the year. They blow me away every year with their heart and willingness to serve alongside us for the kids.

My name is Maxine White, and I am the Internal Fundraising Coordinator for DanceBlue 2018.Through this position, I learned just how big the DanceBlue community is. From local businesses and restaurants to friends and family, there are so many people who are willing to give their time and energy to help this great cause.

Internal fundraising deals with any fundraisers put on by DanceBlue overall instead of a specific team. Our goal for fundraising is to plan a variety of events leading up to the marathon like community fundraisers, restaurant nights, letter and email drives and neighborhood canning. While this may seem like a daunting task, the people we work with make our job easy. To plan fundraisers, we meet with the owner or manager and give them the rundown on DanceBlue. After hearing about all the hard work UK students put in, they are always ready to jump in head first. Since they know their customers best, we get awesome tips and ideas from them on how to make the event as successful as possible. Working together like this helps makes every event unique.

This is my second year on the committee for DanceBlue, and after last year, I couldn’t think of how DanceBlue could mean more to me than it already did. Very soon after I began working with the fundraising team, I was proved completely wrong. At first, I only saw what the students were capable doing. This year, I got to witness the power of the Lexington community—how they are working and fundraising together to improve the lives of our clinic kids. Whether it’s coming to a restaurant night, donating online or sending words of encouragement to a dancer, my hope is that everyone has the chance to become a part of this amazing DanceBlue family.