“One-two-three, five-six-seven. And a one-two-three, five-six-seven.”
The dancers, paired up in a circle around the dance floor, are in the middle of a ballroom dance lesson from Prof. Courtney Mulcahy. Everyone seems to be having fun even if some are counting steps to themselves along with the instructor.
The day has already included several dance lessons and performances, from Tejano and Hip-Hop to modern and a round of “Baby Shark.” CougarThon, a six-hour dance marathon planned by the Alpha Mu Tau Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society to raise money and awareness for the Children’s Miracle Network of Hospitals, is in full swing.
“All the proceeds for registration, donations and the sale of CougarThon items will go to a hospital to help a sick or injured child,” Alpha Mu Tau Chapter President Mariah Carvalho says.
CougarThon is Collin College’s version of similar events held across the country. In addition to dancing, there was face painting, a henna tattoo area, free food, balloon games and raffle prizes.
The day kicked off with a speech by Sim Scott, a junior dual credit student with the Health Science Academy in Plano, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 6 years old. He told the assembled crowd about some of the great things he has lived to experience because of the work of Dallas Children’s Medical Center, one of the hospitals that Collin’s PTK chapter was raising money for.
“It’s really great to see other people who make it a point to go out and help children’s hospitals even if they don’t have someone in their family who needs help or have never been to the hospital themselves,” Scott said after his speech. “I like coming out to events like this to share my story and inspire people to do more things that help CMN.”
In this case, the thing that people are here for is to dance, have fun and raise money. Looking around the room, members of PTK are picking up the pace on the dance floor and encouraging the wallflowers in the room to get involved as well. By the end of the day, the student organization will have raised more than $5,700 to help fund medical care for children in need.
For now, though, PTK Vice President of Service Huong (Lee) Ta says, “We dance for the kids who cannot.”