Jessica Sirls dances for charity
Jessica Sirls raised $28,500 for children with AIDS at last spring’s Dance Marathon.
Sometimes dancing the night away can really pay off. Jessica Sirls (COM’07) raised $28,500 at the third annual Dance Marathon last spring, organized by two students through the Student Activities Office.
The April dance-off brought in a total of $80,000 for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Camp Heartland, a summer camp for HIV-positive children.
Sirls generated her amazing total by speaking with family and friends during the year and reminding them that contributions should be made in March. Since she has been an avid participant in the Dance Marathon for the past three years, Sirls just needed to give her sponsors the “heads-up” that it was time to participate again.
The dedicated Sirls, a broadcast journalism major from Corona, Calif., explains, “My favorite part was probably just encouraging and being encouraged by my friends to keep dancing. We fed off each other.”
A great aspect of the Dance Marathon, Sirls points out, is that it is student-run. “One of my sorority sisters helped bring [Dance Marathon] to BU a few years ago, which is one of the reasons I love to get so involved…the fact that there’s so many other things a University student could be doing on a Saturday night makes it amazing to see the turnout when the night comes,” she says enthusiastically.
Information on the first registration for this year’s Dance Marathon is expected by next month.