Dancing With the Panthers Raises Money for Cancer

Skye Isenblatter, Reporter

For Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teacher, Sarah Novak, nothing is more important in her career than Dancing with the Panthers, an event to raise money for the Northwest Indiana Cancer Kids (NICK) Foundation. This year, Griffith High School hosted the 4th annual Dancing with the Panthers (DWTP) event on May 11 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the field house.
   Novak began planning the event early to ensure that it was successful. She had meetings with the members of Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). At the meetings, they planned the date, time, and amount of money they hope to raise. This year, $1,873 was raised altogether.
   Each member of FCCLA was required to be the captain of or join a successful team. There was a limit of ten people per team. Every team had to raise at least $200 to get into the event. Each team chose a color to represent them. This year the team that raised the most money was the Pink Panthers team, which raised $519???; they won gold chains, mini trophies, and prize bags.
   Junior Kylee Taylor said she enjoyed raising the most because she loved the gratification of knowing they made a difference.
   At the event, at least one member of each team must be on the dance floor the whole night. The point of the night is to turn something many people love, such as dancing, into a fundraiser that can help many kids. Having an event where high schoolers can dance with their friends which results in more people which adds up to more money for the kids.
   During the event, There was a photo booth, bounce house, DJ, and concession stand, so the students had everything they needed for the three hours they were there. There was a dance contest that a small group on each team participated in. Taylor and senior Skylar Zurek, members of the Pink Panthers team, won the dance contest.
   “We danced to single ladies, did the worm, and hyped everyone up about DWTP in the goofiest way to make them laugh,” said Taylor.
   Because they won, they both posted on Twitter declaring that with every retweet, they would donate five cents to DWTP. They had 77 retweets which raised $5 for the kids. There also was a race around the track in which three people from each team competed in. The first team to have everyone cross the finish line won $50 towards their team. For this contest, the Hawaiian team won, which added to their total of $453 raised, bringing them to second place.
   “I chose to donate 5 cents per retweet to raise awareness for the NICK foundation throughout the school so that more students will be involved next year, along with putting it out to the public so that next year we can raise even more,” said Taylor.