Woodbury Man Part Of Fundraiser For Iowa Children's Hospital

WOODBURY, MN— A Woodbury native was part of a massive effort that helped raise $1.4 million for a children's hospital located near University of Iowa, where he attends school, the university said in a news release.

Caleb Craven was one of over 1,400 students who participated in the 27th annual dance marathon fundraiser, raising a total of $1,422,443.27 for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, the university said.

This year's dance marathon was themed "Rise with Resilience", and brought the total amount raised for the hospital to over $31 million over the 27 years of the event, the university said.

"A very popular spark word this year has been resilience," DM27 executive director Elizabeth Jackson told the University of Iowa's Daily Iowan. "But for our families, they've been resilient as they received a diagnosis, got treatment, entered remission, or lost their child. The epitome of resilience is to have to go through all those challenges."

The dance marathon also works to create special projects to support those undergoing care at the hospital, especially those with pediatric cancer or undergoing bone marrow transplants and the 11th floor of the hospital is named the University of Iowa Pediatric Oncology Unit, the university said.

You can read more about the dance marathon here.