12 Days til 12 Hours

This was written for the UNI Dance Marathon blog but I wanted to share it here as well.
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People always ask me why I do Dance Marathon. They ask me why I take so much of my time and dedicate it to a position that I am not even paid for. They ask me why I am fundraising for a cause I am not affected by. They question my sanity. They question my heart. And they question why I care about DM so much more than I care about sleep.

Every single time somebody asks me these questions I respond with a simple answer, “Have you ever done DM?”

It almost never fails that the people that ask those questions are the people that have never done DM before, but the people that have done DM, get it. They understand why I do what I do. They get why DM is such a huge part of my life. They understand why fundraising is so important. They understand that DM isn’t just a student organization. It’s a lifestyle, a way of life. Dance Marathon a movement.

In 12 days, I will be dancing for the kids. I will be dancing for brighter futures. I will be dancing with the hope that someday, Dance Marathon won’t exist. I will be dancing for a cure for childhood illnesses.

Anybody who has attended a Dance Marathon before understands the impact a dollar can make on the lives of the miracle kiddos. If you haven’t attended Dance Marathon before, you might not understand why fundraising is such an integral part of the DM equation, but meeting the kiddos and seeing what your fundraising supports will change your attitude toward it real quick.

I encourage you, if you haven’t started fundraising yet, use these next 12 days to raise as much money as you can for the kids. Many people, including myself my freshmen year, attend their first Big Event and quickly realize how easy it is to fundraise. Don’t wait until the Big Event; start fundraising now. I promise you won’t regret it.

- DV

Letter to Dance Marathon

I wrote this letter to UNI Dance Marathon as the Director of Public Relations in 2015. It was originally published on the UNI DM blog, but I wanted to share it on here as well.
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UNI DM has 35 miracle kiddos but there are thousands more around the world who are dealing with sickness just like our kiddos. Every single one of them, all around the world, have one thing in common. They all have a zero hour. That second in time where everything changed and normal was no longer normal. For many families, it happened within the first few hours of their child’s birth when the doctor told the parents that their child wasn’t perfectly healthy. Other families got the news after their child bumped their head playing soccer, went in for a checkup and found themselves sitting in the doctor’s office after receiving paralyzing news; their child had a life threatening illness.

Everybody has a zero hour, a defining moment where everything changes; a time in their life where normal is no longer normal. For our miracle kiddos and their families, they did not get to choose their zero hour, it just happened.

We have the opportunity to choose our zero hour, though. We get to choose when everything changes and we quit accepting normal as being normal. Our miracle kiddos did not get to choose the moment their lives changed forever, but we can choose ours. We can choose to have our zero hour RIGHT NOW.

I challenge you, make today your zero hour. Change your mind set about what Dance Marathon is all about. Don’t just let it be an event you attend once a year with your friends, but something you are passionate about. Dance Marathon strives to change lives by raising money for kiddos who didn’t pick their zero hour. Take the next two months and push yourself to your limits with fundraising for these kiddos. Every dollar counts and with your help, we can change lives.

Make today your zero hour, make today the day you commit to changing lives.

- DV

Welcome to my Blog!

The first time I was told I had to write blogs for my job, I was completely against it. I didn't see the value in blogging nor did I think I was a very good writer. After writing for a couple of months, I realized that I actually enjoyed writing and began to see the value in having a blog for businesses.

As I started my senior year at UNI, I started a blog for UNI Dance Marathon that proved to be extremely successful (you can find it here). And during my final semester at UNI, a professor told my class that we would need to create a blog for our personal brand and create original posts throughout the semester.

Over the course of my final semester at UNI, I realized that I actually really love to write. I had always known that it was something that came easily to me, but it had never occurred to me that I could write for fun and that is why I am starting this blog.

While this first post is dated January 1, I am writing this on June 1. I wanted this post to be the very first on the blog as the next several posts are ones that I wrote for my class project or for Dance Marathon, but I really enjoyed writing them and wanted to share them on this blog as well.

If you find yourself reading this, I'd just like to say welcome to my blog and I hope you enjoy what I have to say. Nothing is profound or special, I'm just a guy who likes to write and occasionally share my thoughts with the world.

- DV