History

In 1973, the inter-fraternal council of Penn State University started what has come to be known as Dance Marathon. In 1977, Penn State’s Dance Marathon affiliated itself with the Four Diamonds Fund, a fund created to assist families whose children were receiving aide from the Penn State Children’s Hospital at the Hershey Medical Center. In addition to providing direct assistance to families, the fund also provides money for clinical, educational, and research programs related to childhood cancer.

To this day, Penn State’s Dance Marathon has contributed over $46 million to the Four Diamonds Fund. Recognized as the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, it is responsible for 87 percent of the donations that the Four Diamonds Fund receives.

At the University of South Carolina, Dance Marathon is currently in its fifteenth year. It has grown to become the largest student-run philanthropy on campus, and remains one of the only events to unite a wide-variety of student and community members. It has affiliated itself with the Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital in Columbia, SC as a proud member of Children’s Miracle Network. To this day USCDM has raised over $1,000,000 for the Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, and continues to grow each and every year.