UF DM Family Relations Newsletter #1

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA Family Relations Newletter

DANCE MARATHON

A Letter from Daniel Hello Families!

Happy November! I hope you have all been enjoying the break from the scorching hot temperatures with this beautiful fall weather. I know I am enjoying it! Dance Marathon events are in full swing and we are having an incredible year so far. With 17 Overalls and 339 captains, this is our year to make DM the biggest and best, so get excited!

This year you have all been paired with a Family Relations captain and some organizations/captain teams! They are all so excited to meet you and get to know your families this year. They would love to hear back from you all with letters, pictures or even visits to their organizations. Putting names with all of your faces makes this whole experience that much more special.

In this first newsletter, you will see pictures from our past fall events, a new miracle family spotlight and upcoming dates to get excited for!

The spring is quickly approaching and there is so much to look forward to. We will be having many high school dance marathons, our Family Sweet Dreams fundraiser, our FT5K, of course Dance Marathon and many more events!! We hope to see many of you at the events!

As always, it is such an amazing honor to be this years Family Relations Overall for Dance Marathon. The experiences I have had thus far with many of your families will stay with me forever. You all hold such a special place in my heart and I am beyond grateful to spend more time with all of you in the upcoming months. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy weeks to share your stories and support Dance Marathon at UF. All I can say is, thank you.

For All the Right Reasons, Daniel Harbus Family Relations Overall dharbus@floridadm.org

Upcoming Events & Birthdays

Upcoming Events December 5th- DM Food Truck Rally January 9th- Oak Hall HS DM January 16th- Vero Beach HS DM January 30th- Eastside HS DM January 31st- Palm Beach Central HS DM March 14-15- DANCE MARATHON!!!

November/December Birthdays Tyler S. - November 2nd Hyla M. - November 16th Miranda L. - November 24th Zander W. - November 29th Daniel P. - November 30th Izabella & Jesubelle N. - December 7th Cierra K. - December 14th Ryan T. - December 16th Tyler P. - December 23rd Geoffrey P. - December 25th

Happy Birthday!

Love, Family Relations

Family Spotlight

Kendall “Miss K” L., Age 3 Fun Facts Her favorite foods are fruits and veggies (aside from gummies)! She loves the movie Frozen and watching football with her dad, and she enjoys dancing with her big sister Taylor and riding ponies. Stealing Mom’s iPhone, coloring, and playing with play-doh.

Miracle Story “Miss K” was born on June 2, 2011 via planned repeat C-Section. We knew of none of her issues prior to her birth. Within the first few hours, it was determined that she had VACTERL Association. This is an acronym that represents a number of types of issues: Vertabrae, Anal, Cardiac, Trachea, Esophageal, Renal, Limb. In addition to these issues, she also has Pulmonary Complications.

UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital has been our home away from home since Day 1. She was transported there from Munroe Regional and stayed at UF Health for the first 7 weeks of her life. She had her first set of surgeries on Day 5 and her first Open Heart Surgery when she was 26 days old. We are followed by 6 pediatric specialties: Cardiology, Pulmonary, Pediatric Surgery, GI, Nephrology, & ENT. We have nothing but love for our pediatric department here at Shands and everything they have done for us.

On behalf of Miss Kendall and all of our family, we would like to thank all of you for your hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm.

It’s the hard work of each and every one of you that makes this so successful every year. It’s this kind of success that in the end helps our family, as well as thousands of others both near and far. We wish that every family that has children with medical issues had an army of support like we do... from our heart to yours, Thank you! xoxo – Kendall’s Mom

Event Highlights

Bouncin’ Big

By Lindsey Capone My day at Bouncin’ Big was so much fun! If you’ve never been before, it’s a giant warehouse filled with tons of bounce houses. They have slides, obstacle courses, a sports arena and even a Velcro wall! Zander and his family came to hang out all day and we conquered all of the bounce houses. I think the funniest part was being stuck in “jail” (Zander was a detective for Halloween) and anyone who entered the bounce house was automatically put in jail as well! The only way to get out of jail and to the top of the fort was to complete whatever crazy task he came up with. My task was to jump 5 million times.

We got to hang out with tons of other captains and miracle families, too.

Zander liked to challenge anyone who went near the obstacle course to a race. The line dance was also a must on this fun day. Watching the miracle children try to follow along was super cute and funny. Overall, Bouncin’ Big was a great day! I was able to hang out with Zander and his family, as well as meet new families and captains!

Event Highlights

DM Bowling

By Allison Buenaga Being a family relations captain for Dance Marathon 2015 has been such an incredible experience. Before I was a family relations captain I met the Mullen family and grew close with them over the past year. When I found out I was paired with them for Dance Marathon, I was beyond thrilled. Both Kaylee and Nick have become the younger siblings I never had and it so amazing to see them enjoy their time at Dance Marathon Events. The entire Mullen family is so involved in Dance Marathon and we always have so much fun together at all of the Dance Marathon Events.

Dance Marathon Bowling was such an important event for Nick and the rest of his family because he is an AWESOME bowler!! Nick had his own lane and it was so much fun to be there supporting him. Whoever wanted to attempt to beat Nick had to pay $1. Let’s just say, no one beat him J For me it was so amazing to see how happy Nick was, along with all of the other miracle children and their families. Some people consider this work but I can honestly say I have just as much fun as all of the kids do! Scott Mullen always tell me that the students involved with Dance Marathon have no idea how much of a difference we make in their lives. Little does he know, his son and all of the other miracle children have made an everlasting impact on our lives. It is events like this and the smiles that are put on these children’s face that remind me everyday why I am FTK.

Event Highlights

Homecoming Parade

By Brennan Batten As a new member of Family Relations, the family parade was one of my first events. Words cannot explain how exciting it was. Not only did I get the chance to meet the amazing miracle families, but I was also allowed the chance to walk next to these families, representing Dance Marathon.

As we walked and different music played, I was reminded of how amazing Dance Marathon is and how just walking next to our float could make such a difference for our philanthropic efforts. Overall, walking in the parade helped raise awareness for our organization and was a fun, positive environment for the families and captains involved!