28 hours. 800
students. $583,015.
Those are some numbers you will definitely hear when talking
about the South High Marathon Dance, a huge event put on each year by my high
school in South Glens Falls, New York. High school students dance in our gym
for 28 hours straight to raise money for people and organizations in our area.
It’s a massive event that brings the whole community together to help out
recipients ranging my softball coach, who suffered from ALS, to a student who
needed a kidney transplant, to our local food bank. It is a student run event,
but the entire town gets involved – parents and teachers work food and raffle
tables, all of the food, decorations, and DJ services are donated from local
businesses, and the security and emergency services are volunteers from our own
EMS and Fire Department. Throughout the 28 hours, thousands of community
members come to watch, particularly for the closing ceremony. The announcement
of the total amount raised is the final moment of the dance. The number is immediately
plastered across every Facebook status, newspaper, and local news station. The
amount is record breaking. Each year, the previous year’s total is blown out of
the water. We hold the national record for the most money raised by a single
high school charity event. The number of dollars raised is truly incredible and
something to be proud of, but if you ask anyone in my community what the best
part of the Marathon Dance, you won’t even hear a number come out of their mouth.
Marathon Dance isn’t about the money. It’s about how students, a high school, a community come together to give their hearts to people who need it. Before the final total is announced at the end of the dance, the dancers finally get to sit on the floor as the recipients speak before them (and the thousand community members watching from the bleachers). The recipients are profusely grateful for the money that is being donated, but that is never what they are most moved by. What brings the recipients, the dancers, and the community members to tears every year without fail is when the recipients talk about how they were given tremendous support and love from the community. They tell us about how strengthened and loved they feel during a point in their life when they are vulnerable and struggling. Of course the recipients are thankful for the money, but even more so for the people whose undying dedication, generosity, and love made such an amazing thing like the South High Marathon Dance happen.
The 2014 Marathon Dance raised $583,015 for 39 recipients. You could do some math and figure out that that amount of money could buy malaria nets, vaccinations, or meals for significantly more people. Does the number of people affected truly represent the “goodness” or success of service? Effective altruism is a philosophy about finding the most effective ways to the greatest impact on the world. It is a very important concept to understand – donors should be critical and knowledgeable about where money is going and what projects are the most cost effective. It is easy to validate service based on a number, but projects should never be devalued because they are more interpersonal or give to fewer people. Service isn’t just about numbers and making a difference is more than hours volunteered or dollars donated. Sometimes the greatest impact is what comes out of a community coming together to give themselves (and yes, sometimes give money) to a mission they truly care about. Looking back on my four years as a dancer, I don’t remember the totals from each dance, but I do remember the undeniable impact we made and the lives we changed.
For anyone who would like to learn about the South High
Marathon Dance:
Casey,
ReplyDeleteIt is truly amazing how much money your town raised hosting this South High Marathon Dance. I find it inspiring that the people involved in the event were more interested in making a positive impact rather than focusing on how much money was raised or on how many people were affected. I guess it ties in with the idea of effective altruism that you introduced later in the post. As you mentioned making the most effective impact is “what comes out of a community coming together” to reach a common goal. I completely agree with this concept and encourage others to think about how we can motivate our community to achieve goals similar to that of South Glens Falls.
Casey,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very good example of effective altruism and also helps to tackle a reoccurring and controversial theme that has come about in class and with our work as a PSLC, and that is how one can put a value to their service and give most effectively. In terms of donating most effectively, (in regards what you had mentioned about how the money could be used to buy malaria nets and effect a much larger population) I don’t believe that a general consensus can ever be reached to determine what the “best” way to give will ever be, and I’ve been lead to believe that it is sort of a superfluous detail in the grand scheme of altruism. Of course there is a significant difference between “good” and “bad” giving, however, if you are committing some sort of altruistic act, whether it be donating a kidney or donating money to provide 1000 vaccinations for a population, I think we are too easily caught up in defining the act numerically or by other means as opposed to simply appreciating it for what it is: an act of service that holds a positive impact on others and works toward the betterment of society as a whole. Thoughts?
I completely agree. It’s impossible to solve all the problems in the world. You can’t quantify justice. Some people would certainly try to argue the money might be better spent on other issues; Bill Maher once said something on his program to the effect of, “It’s wrong that in America there are bakeries that won’t do wedding cakes for gay couples, but other countries you get killed for being gay” – essentially, that even in the face of injustice, we should be grateful for the rights we ARE afforded. And while that’s certainly not untrue, it’s not quite the same with charity work. Is it less right to raise money give a white male American boy a kidney transplant than to raise money for malaria nets for an impoverished African community? I don’t think so. As far as “good” and “bad” giving are concerned, we ought to focus more on how and where the money is being spent rather than trying to quantifiably compare the goodness of two completely different charitable acts. Everyone is human – we say that often to remind people that those suffering in far-away places are as deserving as those next to us, but we shouldn’t let that mean that those close to us are somehow less deserving.
DeleteCasey,
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely amazing how your school and the community comes together to raise money and awareness for such great causes. It is a perfect demonstration of how volunteering doesn't need to be only about fixing the superficial problems but also providing the warmth and strengthening the solidarity between all of us in order to show the true side of humanity. The Marathon Dance that your high school does is a great way of showing how a community can strive for excellence through putting on a great performance to raise awareness or help those in need, and still achieve success in terms of the amount of money collected from donations to help recipients. It truly does show the generosity and dedication of your community but effective altruism does come into question when raising a large sum of money in a case like this. I tend to favor the effective altruism approach more because it is more pragmatic in finding the best way to make the greatest positive impact. But the effectiveness of giving will not matter if it is not done properly. I definitely agree with your point that donors should be very aware and have knowledge of where their money is going to and how it is being spent.
Hey Casey,
ReplyDeleteKudos to you and your school for really affecting the lives of many people with such a creative and fun event. I think it is beautiful when different parts of the community can come together to support a great cause. I also agree with Lauren and Eliza on the difficulty in forming a unanimous conclusion on prioritizing one cause over the other. In a world of limited resources, we start forming hierarchies like these so we can meet the needs of the "more important" causes first. We determine this hierarchy based on our own values and experiences. Following Eliza's example, if we lost a loved one to kidney failure, we are more likely to help the child. On the other hand, if we witnessed the curable devastation of malaria first hand, we would find getting nets more significant. In the end of the day, when someone’s life has been better because of altruism, then the numbers do not really matter. This was clearly shown when the recipients were more moved about the community involvement than the money actually raised.
Casey,
ReplyDeleteHearing the impact that this event has had on its residents and its community is absolutely astonishing. Although the event, on paper, may have seen astonishing, what is even greater is the level of community growth that has occurred because of this event. This shows that community is not about the exact dollars that a particular event raises. It is more about how a particular event has touched and affected it's people on an emotional basis. Even if the event had not raised as much money as it did, I am sure that everyone in the community would show just as much support and gratefulness to the people who decided to donate their time into making a change in someone else's life.