Dance Marathon at Florida State University celebrated its 31^st year of fundraising for pediatric healthcare in the Big Bend and Gainesville areas by doing what it does best – instilling in its participants a passion for helping others, creating lifelong friendships in the process, and raising more money than it did the year before.

This year’s total of more than $1.5 million, $1,506, 504.67 to be exact, will be equally divided after expenses between Children’s Miracle Network programs at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville and the FSU College of Medicine’s pediatric outreach programs. Dr. Alma Littles, dean of the college, shared with DM participants a few of the ways DM dollars improve children’s health and lives locally.

“FSU PrimaryHealth™ can expand primary and behavioral health care services to children in our community because of you,” she said. “Your hard work supports services for Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome and other Neonatal Intensive Care Unit services through the FSU Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy.”

She also talked about how the college’s Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases continues to expand and grow, thanks to funding from the Florida Legislature, with new programs that enhance the services DM supports.

“We have opened a Precision Pediatrics Clinic and within weeks, we will begin whole genome screening of newborns,” Littles said. “The director of our Genetics Counseling degree program begins work tomorrow, and we plan to admit the first students to that program next year.”

The College of Medicine funds many of its outreach programs through grants to providers  such as Big Bend Hospice, which provides grief counseling to children who have lost a loved one. Bond Community Health Center was able to repair and upgrade its mobile health unit, allowing it to meet patients’ needs where they are, in their communities. 

Through grants to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation, the college has used DM funds to buy specialized and costly incubators that serve as a protective shield for premature newborns.

“For a baby born early, the world is too loud, too bright and too cold,” Nigel Harris, president and chief advancement officer for the TMH Foundation, explained. “These incubators create a quiet, filtered and pressurized space where a preemie can focus 100% of their energy on growing, rather than fighting off the outside environment.

“Every time a family leaves our hospital with a healthy baby, Dance Marathon is a silent partner in that success,” he said. “We continue to be so grateful for the passion Dance Marathon participants bring to this mission!”

Closing ceremonies, held the first Sunday in March each year at FSU’s Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, are always emotional. This year was no different.

“Your dedication has made Year 31 possible,” a tearful Executive Director Grace Massari told the crowd. “I hope you understand the impact you’ve had not only on me, but on every life we touch.

“You made this experience not only a success, but a memory I will carry with me forever.”

Locally known as DM@FSU, the yearlong effort is the largest student-run philanthropy on campus and one of the top five Children’s Miracle Network marathons in the country. It includes a number of smaller campaigns throughout the year and culminates in the 30-hour dance fest.

It’s a passion project for participants, both FSU students and students at middle and high schools in Leon and Wakulla counties.

Of the $1.5 million-plus raised this year, $316,990 came through school-based campaigns called Community Marathons. They, too, continue to grow, surpassing their 2025 tally by more than $50,000.

Neither Travis Ferguson nor Bryan Seaquist could have imagined how Dance Marathon would grow and what it would become when they proposed the concept back in 1995. They just wanted to give the Tallahassee community and FSU students a chance to do something together for a good cause. They raised $25,521 that year, had a great time and created a legacy, which led to their induction this year into the Dance Marathon Hall of Fame.

Ferguson, of Tampa, and Seaquist, of Tallahassee, attend closing ceremonies every year. While last year’s 30^th anniversary celebration was special, this year’s meant even more to Ferguson. He shared that the young woman on stage with him and Seaquist was his daughter Danica, a sophomore studying nursing at FSU and one of this year’s dancers.

“It was a real ‘proud dad’ moment,” he said afterward.

For her part, Danica described participating in FSU’s massive philanthropy that her father helped establish as “surreal. It feels like a full-circle moment.”

“Two guys had an idea, they went for it, and that idea has grown into this,” she said. “It shows that you really can make a huge difference, starting with a small step.”

                                                                        Contact Audrey Post at audrey.post@med.fsu.edu

Photos by Colin Hackley for the FSU College of Medicine

Photo Captions

Photo on Home page: 

Dance Marathon leaders present "the big reveal," showing how much money DM@FSU 2026 raised.

Photo at top right:

Alma B. Littles, M.D., dean of the FSU College of Medicine, cheers the crowd and raises her microphone in tribute to the dancers' hard work over the past year. DM@FSU is older than the College of Medicine by five years. In 2003, DM and the Children's Miracle Network added the college as a recipient of its fundraising, splitting the proceeds between UF Health Shands Children's Hospital in Gainesville and the FSU College of Medicine for its Pediatric Outreach Programs in the Tallahassee region.

Photo below:

Co-founders Bryan Seaquist, center, and Travis Ferguson, right, were inducted into the Dance Marathon at FSU Hall of Fame this year. Nicole Lang, the DM@FSU executive board member in charge of Legacy for 2026, is at left. Ferguson said the shirt he is wearing is one he acquired during the first DM@FSU.