South Windsor For The Kids raises over $7,000 for CT Children’s

The fourth annual South Windsor For The Kids Dance Marathon fundraiser to benefit Connecticut Children’s Medical Center was held at South Windsor High School on February 3.

The event was started in 2014 by Nicki Cartier, now a junior at UConn, and has been run by her sister, Lindsey, for the past three years. Nicki was a long time patient at the hospital and wanted to find a way to give back to the organization that saved her life.

All proceeds from the event are given to the University of Connecticut’s 18 hour dance marathon, known as HuskyTHON. Last year UConn’s event raised over $716,000. South Windsor was one of the first high schools to be a part of HuskyTHON’s statewide JonaTHONs program of mini dance marathons.

This year's South Windsor For The Kids raised over $7,000 for CT Children’s, and was attended by members of the SWHS community, including over 150 students and teachers. Several families of patients from CT Children’s were invited to share their stories with the group. Miss Connecticut 2016, Alyssa Taglia, also stopped by the event to dance with the kids. The evening consisted of games and activities, including hourly group dances, ping pong, card making, and basketball.

Funds were raised throughout the year from sporting events, bake sales, an online donation website, and donations given the night of. The South Windsor For The Kids club would like to thank the local sponsors who donated food or prizes for the night, and parent and teacher volunteers who helped make sure the event ran smoothly.

The club is still collecting donations up until February 17 through their online donor drive found on their website, www.swftk.weebly.com