The cast of Woodland High School’s spring musical “Footloose” was not the only group dancing the night away on Friday, May 8. Woodland S Club hosted a charity dance marathon with the majority of proceeds benefiting the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center of Yolo County.
Woodland S Club, a service club for high school students interested in improving the status of women and girls in their community, wanted to do something big in its first year of operation.
“We’re a new club,” said S Club vice president Taryn Cadena. “We’ve been involved in other projects this school year, things like volunteering at the Wayfarer Center, participating in the Relay for Life and organizing a prom dress drive, but our club wanted to do something original though. We wanted to do something we could organize on our own.”
After several ideas were tossed around in club meetings, S Club president Renee Rivera suggested the idea of a dance marathon.
“People really latched on to the idea of a dance marathon,” said S Club president-elect Karen Ramming. “Many schools host dance marathons across the country, from colleges and high schools to middle schools. The whole idea was that the ‘dancers’ would be at least standing on their feet for twelve hours.”
The club decided once the idea of a dance marathon was set that the proceeds raised from registration (registration fees were $10 for team members and $15 for single participants) and event activities would go towards the SADVC of Yolo County.
“The SADVC seemed like the perfect cause,” said Cadena. “Their mission correlates with what S Club and Soroptimist International stand for. We wanted to do something that would not only fundraise for the organization but generate a certain level of awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence.”
Local elementary school Dingle Elementary School agreed to host the event which lasted from 7PM on Friday night to 9AM on Saturday morning.
Based on the number of registration forms submitted only forty-five attended the marathon, however the club was not discouraged by the turnout.
“Even though not as many people came out as we would have liked, the event was still extremely successful,” said Ramming. “We raised over $400 from registration, our silent auction and from food and drink sales. For putting the event together in a short time and never doing something like this before, the event went well.”
Entertainment was provided by DJ Ray Cadena. Two live bands also performed at Woodland S Club’s dance marathon. The first band to perform was a student band compromised of Woodland High School students William Humphrey, Randy Bonino, Kevin Enriquez and Andrew Duncan. The second group to perform was a Christian-Catholic band whose members were all affiliated with the Holy Rosary Catholic Church of Woodland. Members included Ted Vega, Lenore Vega, Rick Dorenzo, Fr. Uriel Ojeda, Steve McFarlan and Woodland High School student Jesus Coons-Frausto.
Dance marathon teams Woodland S Club (captain Renee Rivera) and the Funky Freshbots (captain Baotri Nguyen) also squared off in a dance-off.
Those in attendance thoroughly enjoyed the event.
“It really was a lot of fun,” said sophomore Jason Clavelli. “The music was great and the live bands really added to the event. It was amazing that we were able to last twelve whole hours.”
After such a good start, Woodland S Club hopes to continue the event next year.
“I’m really proud of how it turned out,” said Cadena. “Each of our members, especially the officers, put in a lot of hard work to make sure that the event ran smoothly. I’d like to see it happen next year, if possible.”
President-elect Ramming concurred.
“Hopefully next year we can generate the same level of enthusiasm or more,” said Ramming. “I hope that some of the seniors graduating this year who had a big hand in planning are able to come out and see what we can do next year.”
The SADVC of Yolo County was equally satisfied.
“I was honored to work with such a motivated group of students,” said Adrienne Monroe of the SADVC of Yolo County. “SADVC is a most worthy cause and I am so grateful for [their] kindness. I thank [them] for thinking of us and the families we serve.”