Northwestern’s Dance Marathon is hoping to give more money to pediatric AIDS prevention this year than the amount given by the State of Illinois, according to DM organizers.
Ninety-six percent of the proceeds from DM this year will be donated to charity, according to co-chairs Cecilia Byrne and Ben Woo. Of that amount, the Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative will receive 90 percent, while the remaining 10 percent will go to the Evanston Community Foundation, a group that supports developing organizations and projects in Evanston.
The initiative will use the DM money to create pre-natal classes and establish a 24/7 hotline for HIV-positive pregnant women, said Anne Statton, project director of Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative. It will also use the funds to offer free HIV testing to women immediately before giving birth.
“If the mother is HIV-positive, we can help decrease her chances of spreading the virus to the baby,” Statton said.
If DM does at least as well as last year, its donation to Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative will beat the state’s, Woo said. DM’s main beneficiary last year, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, received $378,273, or 92.5 percent of the funds raised after expenses. The State of Illinois is giving $325,000 to the initiative this year.
“This is awesome and depressing at the same time,” Woo, a Weinberg senior, said.
DM was looking for a locally-based medical beneficiary this year, preferably involving children, and Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative fit the bill, Woo said. The initiative’s funding is set to run out at the end of the year, but DM’s donation will help tide the organization over until the state starts providing more permanent funding in a few years, he said.
“DM’s money is not only rescuing them but linking them to permanent funding,” Woo said. “That’s the most significant improvement we could ever hope to have.”
The Evanston Community Foundation, which has been receiving funds from DM since 1998, will collect 10 percent of the proceeds this year, an increase from the 7.5 percent it received in 2005. The foundation will use this donation to improve its community service initiatives and increase its grant partnerships, according to its Web site.
DM has a mutually beneficial relationship with the foundation, said Byrne, DM’s co-chair.
“We feel that since we live in Evanston, we should give back to the community,” the Weinberg senior said. “It allows us to have community events, volunteer opportunities.”
Byrne added that the foundation helped DM lobby for an amendment to Evanston’s liquor law, allowing the group to hold its annual Date Auction at Prairie Moon, 1502 Sherman Ave., Feb. 6. The foundation wrote a letter of support for DM that Woo and Byrne read to the Evanston City Council, she said.
Approximately 4 percent of DM’s proceeds will be used to cover expenses, the co-chairs said. This includes the costs of lighting, sound equipment, labor and office expenses.
“For a charity event, 10 to 20 percent is considered a good overhead, so such a low overhead is pretty cool,” Woo said. “We get everything donated, pretty much.”
Reach Richard Webner at [email protected].
