More than 100 students filled the Brown Lupton University Union Ballroom on Feb. 21 to move and shake for 12 hours straight.

From 2 p.m. until 2 a.m., students and members of the Fort Worth community danced, ate, played games and enjoyed live music in hopes of raising money for Cook Children’s.

Over the course of the night, the marathon raised $12,525 that goes directly to Cook Children’s.

“It goes into whatever fun they need. It could go to the NICU, any construction they have going on, emergency center, anywhere they need it,” sophomore communication studies major, Lexie Perez, said.

Perez started the program at TCU after seeing the impact it made with larger universities.

“I realized we didn’t have anything that benefitted Cook Children’s directly on campus, so I looked at how to get it started as an organization,” Perez said.

Although it’s the organization’s first year on campus, students said they were happy with the turnout and hope the impact only grows.

Sophomore biology major, Karlyn Tunnell, said she hopes the marathon gets students to reach out into the community more.

“I hope it really gets people to think more about this kind of stuff and gets students especially to reach outside of campus,” Tunnell said. “Even if it’s not with Cook Children’s, but other organizations, to really help the community of Fort Worth and to really try and make an impact.”

Senior biochemistry major, Charlie Ruff, said he was happy to be a part of such a big event that is geared towards a great cause.

“Ideally, this gets the ball rolling and next year it’s even bigger and it becomes something like Penn State where they raise millions of dollars for their local communities,” Ruff said.

“I think Cook Children’s hospital is one of the best hospitals out there, so why not raise money to support the kids that need our help and our love.”

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