Students Boogie For Cancer Research
By Courtney Linehan, Daily Illini; SOURCE: U. Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

Hardly anybody walked through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's lifeless Lincoln Square Mall Friday night.

The parking lot was empty and aside from a few security guards, most of the mall was abandoned. But at the former location of Bergner's Department Store, the heavy beats of dance music spilled into the mall's corridor as nearly 200 University students began their night.

For 10 hours, the students danced in the first Boogie Night Dance for Cancer, a dance marathon sponsored by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. The event was created in memory of NSCS member Lauren Wille, who passed away from osteosarcoma last year. The event has raised over $7,000 to date, estimated Lorrin Millette, NSCS president and senior in communications. The money raised will be donated to the Cancer Center Research Foundation at University of Chicago Hospital, where Wille received treatment.

"It's definitely a good charity to do something for," said event emcee Dave Campanile, senior in LAS. "It's kind of cool to get people out here to do something outside the bar scene."

Participant Katie Hendricks, a freshman, said she had previously attended dance marathons at her high school and thought they were a creative way to raise money.

"I love to dance," Hendricks said. "This gives people incentive to donate. More people are willing to give [money] to you because it seems like you're willing to actively participate."

The marathon featured an array of performers including American Idol contestant Nicki G., local band Illini Contraband and a number of University dance troupes. The highlight of the event, however, was a performance from Bands.com artist Josh Holmes, who played covers of popular hits and original songs from his latest CD.

"Josh Holmes [got the best response] hands down," Millette said. "He is probably going to be a huge local guy around here; he had the hugest fan base after his performance. Everybody came up and wanted his autograph and bought all of his merchandise. He was so fantastic."

Although Holmes' music - a sound reminiscent of artists such as John Mayer and Matchbox Twenty - was a shift away from the dance music played most of the night, his mix of familiar classics and new material won the crowd's attention.

"If you had to put a label on it I'd say it's soul-rock," Holmes said of his style. "When I'm doing an event like this, I know people want to have fun and if people aren't as familiar with me I'll play some of my more upbeat cover songs and sneak some of my originals in."

Holmes said playing at the event was as positive for him as it was for NSCS.

"It's good to reach out to the college market. Because I just graduated a year ago, I listen to the same music as college people. We're all pretty much the same age group," Holmes said. "I definitely like playing the college market because I can relate to those people and they can relate to me."

Holmes decided to donate half the proceeds from merchandise sold at Boogie Night back to the cause.

Other sponsors included Red Bull, Great American Cookie Company and Panera Bread Company, which all donated food; The Clybourne, Classic Tan, GKC Beverly Cinemas and Mettler Center, which donated prizes for participants; and Aon Corporation, which supplied T-shirts and promotional printing.

"We did get a lot of donations," Millette said. "We're even getting donations from other NSCA chapters."

While the dance marathon was scheduled to run until 9 a.m. Saturday, NSCS decided to end it around 6:30 a.m. when other people began arriving at the mall.

"Around 6:30 things were winding down, so we just asked people what they wanted to do," Millette said. "Everyone was dead tired, so when the mall started to open we figured it was a good time to stop."

NSCS plans to hold the dance marathon annually, but Millette said the inaugural year suffered from a few glitches the group hopes to iron out.

"We're doing it in the fall next year," she said. "People get bombarded with charities in the springtime. Promotion is going to be totally different. I think we could have gotten a lot more people that just wanted to come for, say, Dance2XS, and stay for the time they were going to perform and then leave. We could have gotten a lot more people coming in and out throughout the night than what we did. There's little things here and there that we're going to have to keep in the back of our minds for next year."

Overall, however, Millette said she is happy with the success of Boogie Night, especially the quality of the performances.

"I think if you ask people who attended, the entertainment was unbelievable," she said. "We had really good people come. I knew a lot of them would be good, but they were all just fantastic."

(C) 2003 Daily Illini via U-WIRE

LOAD-DATE: April 5, 2004