Time To Unite

Written By: Hannah Engel

With a new year ahead of us, comes new challenges and new uncertainty. We have no idea what 2020 had in store for us and now it is time to discover what lies ahead of us for the year 2021. 

There are 61 days until Dance Marathon 2021. 61 days to come together as one movement and fight for a cause that means so much to all of us. 61 days to change a child’s life. 

Reilly is 5, and he’s been waiting for a heart transplant for 280 days. 280 days in the hospital, when he should’ve been playing with his friends and family instead. 280 days, in the middle of a pandemic, with many visitor restrictions in place. Reilly needs us to unite together for him and to show him that he is not waiting alone. We need to show him that every person involved in Dance Marathon is supporting him, whether we’re inside that hospital or not. 

We all have the power to change a child’s life, whether it’s by running in the Miracles in Color 5K, raising $5 by doing a random act of kindness for a friend, or dancing your heart out at the Main Event. 

By coming together we can alter the course of pediatric illness. Dance Marathon at UF has united year after year to bring hope to the children at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital and we will not stop until the day no child wears a hospital band.

There are many other children like Reilly down the road at Shands Children’s Hospital right now. We need to show these children that while they may be in a hospital room alone, we are fighting alongside them every day, as one united movement.

While each of us has the power to impact a child’s life, imagine how much more powerful we are when we unite together. We are all fighting for the same cause, and we can accomplish so much more united together than we can as individuals.

Let’s take this new year on together, as one movement. It is time to unite for not only Reilly but for all the children at Shands. It is our #TimeToUnite to show every child fighting at Shands that they have an entire army fighting behind them.