Students seemed past the point of exhaustion during the “Space Jam” portion of Dance Marathon.
Crowd favorites like “YMCA” and “Whoomp! (There It Is)” kicked off Block 8 as dancers buoyed beach balls above the crowd and black lights higlighted neon clothing.
Weinberg freshman Tony Chen said he has been taking naps during every break to keep himself going. But at this point his knees and ankles are bothering him more than fatigue, he said.
Alex Cash felt the same, noting that the effects of an all-nighter are not immediately felt the next day.
“It’s kind of like you went to sleep on a hard tile floor but weren’t allowed to get up off of said hard tile floor,” said the McCormick senior, who was wearing the red energy dome hat popularized by the band Devo.
A live performance by the student band Nebula, this year’s winner of DM’s Battle of the Bands, certainly helped in maintaining energy levels.
Performing a mix of cover and original songs, the band earned the approval of the crowd, which chanted “One more song!” after what was supposed to be their final song.
“I think they did awesome,” said Communication sophomore Catherine McGee. “I loved when they played the songs I knew so that I could sing along to them.”
After Nebula’s performance, the Duffy family, friends of the Stantons, took the stage. Mary Duffy talked about how close her sons Charlie and Brenden became with Danny Stanton after meeting on the baseball field, adding that their play dates gave her a front-row seat to Danny’s “amazing qualities.”
Charlie Duffy then recited a poem embodying words of encouragement to the dancers.
“You may feel you are starting to fizzle,” he said, reading one line of the poem, “but think of Danny’s energy and you’ll sizzle.”
Before the dancers broke for dinner at 6:30 p.m., the finance committee announced DM had raised $442,283 the week of Feb. 27, the week before the full-money deadline.
— Lauren Caruba
