Northwestern’s 51st annual Dance Marathon will kick off this Friday at 6 p.m. in Welsh-Ryan Arena.

This year, NUDM will support Chicago HOPES for Kids as its rotating beneficiary — one of its two beneficiaries alongside its permanent beneficiary, the Evanston Community Foundation. HOPES provides academic and holistic support to students experiencing homelessness in Chicago.

“I think it’s a cause that everyone can get behind,” Weinberg freshman Sierra Mannion, a registered dancer for NUDM, said. “Northwestern’s a very high achieving, academic school, so we’re using that to support a charity that’s trying to help support students academically.”

Last year, the 50th anniversary brought a change to NUDM’s structure: shortening the event to 15 hours instead of 30. Weinberg senior Sammie Hesekiel, NUDM’s managing director and student director, said this change paid off last year and will continue this year, wrapping up NUDM at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 5.

The 15-hour long event is broken up into five blocks, each with different games and performers. This year’s student performers include Purple Haze, Heirloom Band and DJ STRFRY, who Hesekiel said was a crowd favorite last year.

This year, Hesekiel said roughly 15 to 20 teams are registered to dance. She added that registration remains open until the event’s start time on Friday.

To promote NUDM around campus, the student committee has employed a mix of strategies focused on fundraising and community.

“Fundraising is obviously our top priority, so we do try to push that a lot,” Hesekiel said. “But we also know that sometimes people are looking for ways to build community, and so we harp on that also.”

Weinberg junior and NUDM Communications Director Tsion Carnielli said 10% of donations go to ECF while the rest go to the rotating beneficiary.

Carnielli said HOPES is unique because it is the only foundation in Chicago to provide academic assistance to Chicago homeless children in grades K-5.

“It felt really important to us to do something Chicago-based because we know that that really gets the Northwestern (community) and the alumni community super excited,” Carnielli said.

Choosing a local beneficiary also allows NUDM to coordinate with the beneficiary’s liaison to bring children HOPES serves to the event Friday evening. For Carnielli, this is the highlight of NUDM.

“I think it’s just so beautiful to be able to see what we’re doing and who we’re impacting,” Carnielli said.

This weekend marks Hesekiel’s final involvement with NUDM. She described the feeling as an “emotional experience.”

“It’s just really great to put a lot of effort into something and then see such amazing payoff,” Hesekiel said.

Email: laurahorne2027@u.northwestern.edu

Related Stories:

— NUDM Halloween 5K brings community together for festive run

— NUDM unveils revamped, 15-hour Dance Marathon to be held in Welsh-Ryan Arena

— NUDM celebrates 50th anniversary, raises over $340,000 for charity