As 500 Northwestern students entered their 15th hour of dancing Saturday morning, about 30 children gathered on Norris University Center’s ground floor for some fun of their own.
The children, from Evanston area elementary schools and Dance Marathon’s primary beneficiary, Friends for Steven, showed off their bowling skills, contorted their bodies playing Twister and participated in other carnival games at the Kid’s Fair.
This year’s Kid’s Fair was particularly poignant because Friends for Steven funds research on treatments for neuroblastoma, a type of cancer most often found in children, event organizers said.
“Friends for Steven is a very family-based organization,” said Weinberg senior Rashmee Shah, co-chairwoman of DM’s Norris committee. “We have a really broad audience. The purpose of DM isn’t just to raise money – it’s also to raise awareness of the benefits and importance of philanthropy on all levels.”
An energetic spirit filled the room as kids tossed balls into blue baskets and played miniature bowling games amid bunches of red and purple balloons. Others played Twister and threw colorful rings over glass bottles in hopes of winning a pair of eyeball sunglasses or a plastic ring.
“The Kid’s Fair has been really good so far,” said Evie Hirschman, 8, clutching a DM prize sticker and looking longingly at the Twister floor. “I think the Twister looks really cool.”
Emily Isaacson, 6, whose mother danced in DM in 1982, said she has been to the past four DMs and has T-shirts from each marathon to prove it. She held up all her prizes proudly, showing off a paddle board, two plastic fish and a sparkling pink ring.
Toddlers lined up to toss balls into red buckets, squealing if their throws were successful and when they received a prize.
One of the more popular game booths involved the Massive Men of Delta Tau Delta, where the children armwrestled with muscular NU students who stuffed newspaper up their shirts.
“We’ve previously been undefeated, but we ran into some unexpected competition today, ” said Ben Winograd, Medill junior.
Beth Newkirk, a Friends for Steven co-founder and mother of the child for whom the organization is named, said she was glad DM included an event for children.
“They’re making us feel like the guests of honor,” Newkirk said. “It’s so important because being a pediatric foundation, we should have something for the kids to do.”
Many of the children seemed in awe at the notion of dancing for 30 hours.
“I think it’s cool that they’re dancing for 30 hours, but I would be way too tired to do it,” said Caroline Featherstone, 8, as she plucked lollipops from the tree.
“Dancing for 30 hours must be really tiring, especially since they only get a 10 minute break,” added her sister Bess Featherstone, 10, who carried a pair of eyeball sunglasses, a paddle board and a small mirror that she had won.
About 20 volunteers from the Noble Street Charter High School in Chicago helped out at the fair. The volunteers handed out prizes, twisted around the floor with pink and blue hula hoops and danced to the “Electric Slide.”
The Kid’s Fair concluded with a puppet show, “H-OZ,” performed by the kids from Friends for Steven. The show, designed to educate the audience about cancer, was based on “The Wizard of Oz” and featured a boy diagnosed with cancer who follows the yellow brick road to find the courage to face the disease.
“I liked the puppet show,” Caroline said. “I learned that you don’t have to be scared of cancer.”
