dancing for a day, changing lives for a lifetime

Dance Marathons are known for changing lives for sick kids. But they can also change the lives of the college students who participate in this annual fundraiser.

Jessica Salem followed her passion for helping kids and turned it into a lifelong career. She helped start the University of Dayton’s Dance Marathon – now called UD Miracle – in 1999. 26 years later, Jessica is the executive director of the Center for Health Equity at Dayton Children’s Hospital. She’s been with Dayton Children’s for 17 years, supporting injury and illness prevention, community health, advocacy and health equity.

“The creativity and leadership skills I learned through Dance Marathon, putting the puzzle pieces together – that led to my career,” says Jessica. “Those experiences were invaluable in showing me what path I wanted to take in my life.”

Jessica was a member of the planning committee for the very first UD Dance Marathon in 1999 and served as co-chair in 2000. She recalls when she first heard about the new partnership between UD and Dayton Children’s. “I thought – of course we should do this for our local children’s hospital.”

Seeing how a group of college kids could come together to do something incredible for a local nonprofit was intriguing, she says. At the time, Dance Marathon was a TRUE marathon –participants were expected to dance (in shifts) for 24 hours! Now, it’s a 6-hour event with fundraising throughout the year to achieve the monetary goal.

Jessica says of the experience, “It was exhausting! But I remember feeling like ‘look at what we accomplished!’ It was overwhelming in a good way.”

Jessica is now a mom who takes her kids to Dance Marathon to get a taste of the fun and excitement. She hopes they’ll see the impact that young people can make in their community.

“When you work on something in the early years and see it not only sustain, but grow in new directions, there are a lot of pieces that make it successful. It has grown over the last 26 years because it makes a difference for everyone involved.”