Dance Marathon: Amazing event, amazing kids, amazing dancers

Say what you want about college-aged people. You can call them self-involved. Shallow. Irresponsible.

But if you experienced the University of Iowa’s Dance Marathon, you wouldn’t call them any of those things. You would call them selfless. You’d call them giving. Mindful. And inspiring.

Before this year, I had always admired Dance Marathon, which is a year-round volunteer organization that raises money and provides company and support for kids with cancer at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.

In my opinion, Dance Marathon combines the social and altruistic aspects of volunteering better than any volunteer organization I’ve ever seen. And it’s one of my major regrets from my undergraduate years at the UI that I didn’t participate.

But this year, I wanted to do my part to help the dancers get through the Big Event, which is 24 hours, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., of dancing and staying on their feet, interacting with the kids that they work so hard for and the families that appreciate them so much.

I volunteered and worked in the bag check area Friday night. I was honored and proud to be a small, small part of such a great event and organization. While there, I witnessed thousands of dancers, who had already given up many hours of their time to raise money for the young patients of the UI Children’s Hospital who face so much difficulty, giving up their weekend to stay up for 24 hours to celebrate life for the kids.

There’s a real sense of community in the IMU during Dance Marathon. Everyone smiles at each other, everyone is patient and cheerful and full of energy. There’s a palpable buzz. And the kids and families love it. They smile nonstop.

Everyone there is a rock star, but the dancers wouldn’t take any credit. They do it for the kids.

“For The Kids” (FTK) is their mantra, and it’s more than just that. It’s the reason they join Dance Marathon. And it’s the inspiration that keeps them going through all the canning for money; all the time spent organizing and preparing. And all the aches and pains and fatigue that come with staying up and on your feet for that long.

Of course, the amount of money raised is astonishing (over $1 million last year), but it’s the impact they have on the families lives that really matters. Just the fact that someone cares about them, works hard for them and spends time with them seems to brighten these brave kids’ lives. The dancers truly are role models for these kids. What kid wouldn’t look up to cool college kids who treat them like they’re the most important person in the room?

Not only the kids and families look up to the dancers, but the whole UI community does as well, myself included. To all the dancers still going strong as I write this: Thank you for all that you do. We’re proud of you, and you should be proud of yourselves. 

Professionalism: A moving target

Consider the following scenario: You’re at a professional function of some sort, related to your work. Maybe it’s an industry conference where most of the attendees are your client base. You are making your way around the room, meet someone new by chance, and begin talking. You really hit it off and end up talking for half an hour. It’s great conversation, the kind with no awkward pauses and everything just flows like a healthy stream through a meadow. You part ways, wishing the conversation didn’t have to end.

The next day you get a friend request from your conversation partner on Facebook. Remember, they are someone in your professional life who would be a client, where you have to maintain a level of professionalism with them. Do you friend back?

Now let’s say you are a journalist, and your conversation partner was someone who would normally be a source to someone in your profession. Now what do you do with the request?

Or maybe the person you enjoyed speaking with so much was a student and you are a professor. Or you are a doctor and it’s someone who would fit your typical patient’s profile. Now what do you do?

It’s important to strive for professionalism, especially in a professional context like the one mentioned above. But professionalism is a constantly moving target. And much like firing an arrow at a moving bull’s eye, your best efforts could very well go awry.

Any number of variables effect how you are supposed to react and behave in a given situation. One variable is certainly your position. A CEO or manager is going to behave differently at a professional conference than an entry-level specialist. Likewise, many people in my profession, public relations, are going to be held to a different standard than an accountant or webmaster who might do most of their work behind the scenes. Our job is to represent something or someone in a very public way, therefore, we should always be aware how our interactions will reflect, promote or contextualize what we represent. Even in semi-casual settings.

Additionally, one’s age impacts how they define professionalism in certain situations. Many Millennials would have no qualms about friending back in some or all of the above situations, equating it to exchanging a phone number or e-mail address, just another means of communication and networking. But Baby Boomers and even members of Gen X would shudder at the thought of letting a professional acquaintance have access to their Facebook profile and their “other,” non-professional self, because they or their contemporaries place a premium on privacy.

As with most ethically sticky situations, common sense seems the best solution when it comes to trying to achieve professionalism. If you’re faced with a scenario where you have time to think at length, consider how your actions will represent your employer; your clients; your boss; your colleagues; your subordinates. When you decide on a course of action, step back and think about what you would think if a colleague acted the way you were planning to. And don’t be afraid to seek advice from a mentor or friend. If you’re faced with a snap decision, trust your judgment; it’s what got you this far.

So, how do you define professionalism, and what tactics do you use in your best efforts to maintain professionalism in your interactions?