We wouldn’t be “Volunteers” if we didn’t volunteer our time and service to a good cause. That is precisely what students have found through VOLthon within the University of Tennessee and the greater East Tennessee community. VOLthon is an organization at UT that puts on a Miracle Network Dance Marathon to raise money and awareness for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
Isabelle Ponder is a senior majoring in psychology and sociology and president of VOLthon.
“I was treated at a Children’s Miracle Network hospital when I was younger, and Dance Marathon is a national program through CMN hospitals,” Ponder said. “So when I got here, I heard about it, and I found out that we were helping our local CMN hospital. I was in love with the idea and wanted to join.”
“Having that experience of being the kid that’s stuck in the hospital and doesn’t know what’s going to happen and how scary that can be, but getting the help that I needed, you know, and the good treatment, I think when I’m meeting these kids, it really has a profound impact on me,” Ponder said. “I might not have had the exact same thing that they are currently going through or anything, but I can relate to the feeling of being in a hospital in how scary that might be.”
Ainsley McCurry is a junior special education major and vice president of operations with VOLthon. She attended a private high school in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was first introduced to Dance Marathon. Like VOLthon, her high school Dance Marathon helped their local children’s hospital. McCurry knew she wanted to continue her involvement in college.
“I have just always loved leadership and being connected to a community,” McCurry said. “When I moved to Tennessee, I don’t have any family here. … So I really just wanted to be involved with something and connect to my community a bit more.”
Being a special education major, McCurry has spent the past three years building relationships with miracle kids and their families at ETCH.
“I think it’s really great to be able to connect with them and show them that they have people who are looking out for them and thinking of them,” McCurry said. “Their lives are very much filled with hospitals and good news, bad news and all that kind of stuff.”
Ponder recalls a specific relationship she was able to build with a young boy named Noah. As he was receiving cancer treatment last spring, Ponder was able to visit him and bring him Spider-Man toys.
“It’s so great having personal relationships with these kids because they are the most inspiring people,” Ponder said.
For both Ponder and McCurry, seeing the tangible impact and growth through building relationships with ETCH patients has been the most rewarding part of their experiences.
“We’ve watched them grow. A couple of them, I’ve seen for three years now, and they just keep getting bigger,” McCurry said. “It’s so fun to see them each year. They look so much taller and so much older. And then you see them out in public every once in a while, and they get excited to see you because they recognize you.”
Last year in Dance Marathon, VOLthon organized a new activity called “miracle kid meet and greet.” For this activity, each participant was given trading cards with information about each kid as conversation starters.
“We have a miracle kid who has autism,” Ponder said. “He loved it. He struggles to talk to people with just normal conversation, but when all of these people were like, ‘Oh, I hear you love this,’ he was really getting into it.”
The relationships that VOLthon participants build impact not only the kids but also their families.
“His mom came up and thanked us afterwards and was like, ‘That was so special for him, he felt like he could be participating in what was going on, and he had a great time,’” Ponder said. “So that was super special to me because my brother has autism, so I was so glad that we could make that experience a good one for him.”
Each year, VOLthon puts on a series of small events leading up to the Dance Marathon in February to raise money for ETCH. Two years ago, VOLthon raised $160,000 to buy a lifetime ambulance that is able to travel across the state and help families out and bring them to ETCH. Last year, the funds went to buy a new incubator for the hospital.
VOLthon leaders reveal the amount of money raised for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital at Dance Marathon.
“We’re talking about our future generations,” Ponder said. “If we do this thing today, it will have a profound impact on the future generations of tomorrow. And that is something we should care about.”
One of the focuses of the fundraising component is not only to help patients and their families but to help the hospital itself.
“I think that it’s really important to share with people and let people see those tangible outcomes,” McCurry said. “You see that this money is going toward something and it’s helping those kids out. It’s something that the hospital doesn’t have to worry about anymore. You see the numbers of how expensive it is to maintain a hospital and this money is not always guaranteed. Our totals fluctuate each year, but every dollar goes to something.”
McCurry’s involvement with ETCH is something she has used to help people in her personal life outside of VOLthon as well.
“I nanny for a family whose little girl got super sick a few months ago, and I told them to go to ETCH because I knew that ETCH would help them, and they did,” McCurry said.
Beyond helping kids in her personal life now, McCurry hopes to carry the lessons and relationships VOLthon has taught her into her future career.
“Kids deserve to be kids for as long as they can, no matter what they have to go through,” McCurry said.
McCurry is currently on a five-year track to earn her master’s degree in special education. After graduating, she hopes to become an elementary special education teacher and put her passion for helping kids to fruition in the classroom.
“As a teacher, any and all of those struggles that we can take away and help them through, I think we should,” McCurry said. “Being that person that is always in their corner no matter what. We’re always there on the good days, and we’re also there for the bad days. I think every kid needs someone that’s there for them.”
Discovering your passion and using it to get involved and make change is something McCurry hopes everyone can find.
“No matter what it is, I think you should always find something to be involved in,” McCurry said. “VOLthon is a great place to be involved in on any level, whether it’s on an internal staff or just supporting us from the outside. No matter what, you make a difference.”
This year, VOLthon raised over $271K to benefit East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
