My Final Dance Marathon
This past week has been insane at work... and it's not over. I have to go in today (Sunday) and put in another 3-4 hours for the Accolades ceremony. I've been running around at 60mph and haven't really had a chance to reflect on the fact that I'm leaving this home of mine in four weeks. Eleven years I've spent in this place... and that really does leave quite a huge amount of emotional baggage. It all caught up to me yesterday.
Dance Marathon has been a part of my life since college. I helped start it at Bradley University as a morale exec and when I came to Niles West and saw that they had one I got involved as soon as I could. I put in nine years. Nine charities, with a new exec group of incredible teenagers each year, and a new incredible cause. We have raised over $541,000 for amazing home grown charities and have transformed their future possibilities. We helped kids with autism, youth in Africa, kids with cancer, refugees, and a nature retreat for families in need. I'm so so proud of this work. It's probably the best thing I've had a part in at Niles West. It counts more than school improvement meetings and rewriting standards over and over again. It teaches kids to help others, give of themselves selflessly, and more importantly discover the ability to lead.
Yesterday was an example of why I can't sustain this anymore. I packed up the husband and the baby and a pack-n-play and we went to work. I helped the kids set up for the night-of event, set up the kitchen, found supplies, led a man-hunt to find missing cartons of t-shirts, coordinated deliveries and payments. I would run into the teacher's lounge occasionally to check on the husband and baby, and nurse her in the back room every few hours. We ended up leaving work around 5:30 at the same time as the bounce-house roof caved in on kids jumping. Nobody was hurt, but we had to run out to put down the baby at the same time when things went haywire. Very not my style. We drove to the city, we put her down to sleep, and by 7:20 I was on the road to drive back to school. I got there by 7:55 and immediately got weepy.
Alumni came back. There were two incredible ladies that came prior to baby, but when I got back there were 10 more waiting. They had all come back to visit and say goodbye. And with each kid's face I remembered their year, their charity, and my long hours with them after school. I cried like a little girl. It's so so sad to think that I won't be an integral part of this incredible group anymore. I know that they will continue doing the incredible work that we did together... and that I have a different legacy to work on now. Honestly I think leaving West is the only way that I could have given this up... and that's a big reason that I had to.
I had to go back home prior to the conclusion of the evening. Little lady occasionally wakes up around midnight for a feeding and I had to be there. I packed up around 10:30 and my co-sponsor asked me to come into the gym with her. The kids stopped the music and called me up on stage. They talked about how much I had given to the school and made me cry all over again. Each year they have a morale captain of the night award for the student that exemplifies the spirit of DM... and they renamed it the Pritzker Award. I love those kids. I love that event.
I'll be back. I'll visit. But most importantly I'll remember those kids and those connections. And maybe I'll have them over for a BBQ. :)
Dance Marathon has been a part of my life since college. I helped start it at Bradley University as a morale exec and when I came to Niles West and saw that they had one I got involved as soon as I could. I put in nine years. Nine charities, with a new exec group of incredible teenagers each year, and a new incredible cause. We have raised over $541,000 for amazing home grown charities and have transformed their future possibilities. We helped kids with autism, youth in Africa, kids with cancer, refugees, and a nature retreat for families in need. I'm so so proud of this work. It's probably the best thing I've had a part in at Niles West. It counts more than school improvement meetings and rewriting standards over and over again. It teaches kids to help others, give of themselves selflessly, and more importantly discover the ability to lead.
Yesterday was an example of why I can't sustain this anymore. I packed up the husband and the baby and a pack-n-play and we went to work. I helped the kids set up for the night-of event, set up the kitchen, found supplies, led a man-hunt to find missing cartons of t-shirts, coordinated deliveries and payments. I would run into the teacher's lounge occasionally to check on the husband and baby, and nurse her in the back room every few hours. We ended up leaving work around 5:30 at the same time as the bounce-house roof caved in on kids jumping. Nobody was hurt, but we had to run out to put down the baby at the same time when things went haywire. Very not my style. We drove to the city, we put her down to sleep, and by 7:20 I was on the road to drive back to school. I got there by 7:55 and immediately got weepy.
Alumni came back. There were two incredible ladies that came prior to baby, but when I got back there were 10 more waiting. They had all come back to visit and say goodbye. And with each kid's face I remembered their year, their charity, and my long hours with them after school. I cried like a little girl. It's so so sad to think that I won't be an integral part of this incredible group anymore. I know that they will continue doing the incredible work that we did together... and that I have a different legacy to work on now. Honestly I think leaving West is the only way that I could have given this up... and that's a big reason that I had to.
I had to go back home prior to the conclusion of the evening. Little lady occasionally wakes up around midnight for a feeding and I had to be there. I packed up around 10:30 and my co-sponsor asked me to come into the gym with her. The kids stopped the music and called me up on stage. They talked about how much I had given to the school and made me cry all over again. Each year they have a morale captain of the night award for the student that exemplifies the spirit of DM... and they renamed it the Pritzker Award. I love those kids. I love that event.
I'll be back. I'll visit. But most importantly I'll remember those kids and those connections. And maybe I'll have them over for a BBQ. :)
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| Exec Alum at 2014 DM |
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