Southeast Missouri State University's eighth annual Dance Marathon raised more than $9,000 dollars on Saturday at the Recreation Center-North.

The Dance Marathon is a philanthropic event hosted across the country by more than 150 schools. The participants pledge to stay on their feet for twelve hours while they partake in sessions of dancing, games and other activities.

Proceeds raised at the Southeast event help support St. Louis Children's Hospital and Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. The session is also accompanied by speeches given from the parents of the children who are currently suffering from an illness.

The Dance Marathon was formed in 1991 at Indiana University in memory of Ryan White, a student who died from AIDS in 1990. The event has expanded to other campuses since then, raising more than $8 million dollars in White's memory.

"Seeing their faces and hearing their stories on the day of the event is just breathtaking," Southeast sophomore and co-chair of the event Renee Bender said. "The families make it worth it."

Bender and the current directors have helped host the event for the past two years. The goal of the team is to expand its funding along with the overall participation rate from the student body at Southeast. The goal of this year's Dance Marathon was to expand student involvement, along with continuing to raise as many proceeds as possible.

"Every day seeing our donation page go up makes me smile," Jessica Blansitt, chair of Dance Marathon at Southeast said. "Big dollar amounts coming in from a town as small as Cape Girardeau is really exciting."

Blansitt has been a Dance Marathon volunteer since her sophomore year at Southeast. She became the treasurer her second year and now serves as one of the chairs of the event.

"It's really stressful when you need to get a good amount of volunteers for the event, but it's very relieving to see it all come together," Blansitt said.

Aside from piecing the event together, Blansitt and Bender share fond memories of being participants throughout their years here at Southeast.

"My greatest memory would be the reaction I seen in the student's eyes through the event," Bender said. "The students get so into it and they interact with the children and their families throughout the day."

Blansitt's greatest recollection of the event was from its closure.

"Last year one of our board members made a collage of the entire day" Blansitt said. "Everyone stopped to watch it, and it was so fantastic to see everyone's reaction to it."

This year's Dance Marathon raised a total of $9,790.08 along with more than 130 volunteers from the student body.