Initiative hopes to grow organization’s reach, launches at Sunday event
USC’s Dance Marathon has seen a good deal of success over the last 15 years, but this year, it’s going for more, with an alternative – or additional – way to raise money.
And this one doesn’t involve dancing.
Extra Life, a gaming fundraiser, will kick off this Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. in the Russell House’s Golden Spur Game Room. Participants can bring their own video games, shoot pool or play board games, and Dance Marathon team members will be on hand to provide food, encouragement and prizes.
The goal of Extra Life is for participants to pledge to log 24 hours of playing time before 2013’s Dance Marathon event and to reach out to family and friends to sponsor their efforts.
“It’s kind of a go-on-your-own thing, which is different from Dance Marathon,” Lindsay Church, USC Dance Marathon’s public relations director, said. “Hopefully people will be interested in this that wouldn’t do Dance Marathon. And it’s also kind of breaking away from people thinking it’s a Greek thing.”
Nationally, Extra Life is a nonprofit founded in 2008 in memory of Texas Children’s Hospital patient Victoria Enmon.
Fundraising groups from around the country have used Extra Life as way to support Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, and fourth-year public relations student Megan Reidy has that same goal with USC’s event.
Reidy, who is spearheading USC’s first Extra Life initiative as part of a public relations campaign class, said that like the 24-hour Dance Marathon, all funds raised throughout the year by participants will go directly to Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital in Columbia.
Extra Life gamers can register for the USC team at extra-life.org, and they don’t have to be in a student organization to participate.
Church, a fourth-year public relations and political science student, said that the kickoff event is optional but that she hopes it’ll provide a fun and social way for participants to complete their first four hours of gaming.
“Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital helps 80,000 people a year, enough to fill Williams-Brice, which kind of puts it in perspective,” Church said. “I like seeing students put so much time and effort into such a fantastic cause, and it’s great because all the money stays in the community.”