As part of a final push for fundraising, senior and Cabinet member Lily Getchell folds a Carmel Dance Marathon flier on Feb. 16, which she will mail in an envelope. Earlier that day, Getchell and other Cabinet members went to classrooms with their signature red buckets to collect spare change for the Riley Hospital for Children.

The Cabinet is finalizing plans this week for the annual Carmel Dance Marathon, which is on Saturday, Feb. 25, at CHS. Students hoping to participate must raise at least $125 prior to the event, which fundraises for our school’s local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, the Riley Hospital for Children.

According to the Cabinet’s website, Carmel Dance Marathon is the largest high school marathon nationwide in terms of both dollars raised and student participants. Cabinet members said they hope to beat last year’s total, which was over $510,000.

Speaker of the House Tomas Balcius said Dance Marathon is the biggest event Cabinet organizes, as well as the event he is personally most excited for. He added students hoping to join Cabinet next year should attend Dance Marathon and prioritize fundraising.

During the event, participants will split into color-coordinated groups; they can check their color here. The form to request a group change is available on the Cabinet’s Instagram, @carmeldancemarathon.

Cabinet sponsor Sarah Wolff said after members reviewed feedback from last year, they have made several changes to this year’s event. These include deemphasizing dancing and offering more options of other activities, like basketball and working on posters.

“We’re going to do some new things at Dance Marathon, with some more choices, some new fun options. More free choice, rather than doing the activities that we have planned, you have a lot of other activities to choose from…” she said. “So those are some things that (we’ve been working on) for the last month for Dance Marathon.”