Joey Lora's Scrapbook 

April 10, 2003 clipping from the District Chronicles Newspaper.

For the original article go to:
www.districtchronicles.com
Community news ~ Student life

Click Here: For the Words to Joey's Song
 

District Chronicles Newspaper          ~          Community News -
STUDENT LIFE Issue: 04/10/03

Dance Marathon at AU celebrates courageous children
By Andrea Brown

Friday night, four-year-old Joey Lora of Silver Spring, MD, captivated the entire crowd surrounding the bandstand inside of American University's Tavern in the Mary Graydon Center. "Follow Me" chanted the group as they sang the title line along with Joey in his rendition of the Uncle Kracker song. Some members of the group cheered, while others cried, remembering the story of his miraculous battle with epilepsy.

Joey's mom, Sandy, explained to the group how in the four years of his life, her son had undergone five brain surgeries before he was two-years-old, due to the disease, which culminated in the removal of the entire left half of his brain. Although he was completely paralyzed on his right side after the fourth surgery, Joey walks, plays and sings as any child his age would. He lost the use of his right hand though.

Joey Lora's song kicked off the first ever American University Dance Marathon fundraiser to benefit the Children's Miracle Network (CMN) and the Washington, D.C. Children's Hospital. The night brought together AU students and volunteers, Children's Miracle Network patients like Joey, and their families.

"CMN is a very special charity. It's local, so all the money will go back to the Children's Hospital in D.C.," said Director of Community Service for the AU Student Confederation and coordinator of the event Katie Cummings. Cummings researched the charity as a possible project for the Student Confederation and had been planning the Dance Marathon since October of last year. "In the beginning I was nervous. It's hard putting on programs that everybody will come out to. But I'm happy with the turn-out and the kids are having a blast," Cummings said.

Dance Marathon participants kept energized throughout the night with a steady flow of free pizza, snacks and beverages. Enthusiastically, AU students lent their support to the event. Freshman Pennsylvania native Steve Hiltebeitel milled about the crowd dressed in a makeshift cape emblazoned with his title for the night, "Morale Captain." During the night he passed out toys and favors to the children and kept the dancers motivated. "It's all about the kids," Hiltebeitel said. "Hopefully, we can raise some money for the kids and bring the campus together. What they've been through is more than most people have been through in their whole lives."

AU sophomore class president Chris Salazar agreed. "The little kids are super-cute. A lot of fundraising is selfish. It's good to do it for someone else," he said. Freshman Tran Nguyen figured it was a positive way to spend a Friday night. "It's a good alternative to being out barhopping or drinking," Nguyen said.

The patients and their families, who were guests of honor, reveled in the celebration. D.C. resident Denise Adams accompanied her son Marcus Johnson. Johnson contracted meningitis at age eight and following three weeks on life support had both legs amputated at the knee. Now a 16-year-old, Johnson is a Children's Miracle Network spokesperson. "Children's Miracle Network provides things that insurance doesn't cover. It helps tremendously," Adams said. Johnson, who took a break after dancing for a couple of hours, said, "I like what they do for the children."

Melinda McMullin of Greenbelt, Md. and her daughter Katelin, who has cystic fibrosis, were also in attendance. " I think this is a wonderful thing. It's good to see young kids getting enthusiastic." This was the fourth dance marathon for the McMullins.

The night picked up around 10:00 pm when the guest band Pseudopod took the stage. The band traveled cross-country from Los Angeles, California to perform. Their performance was free of charge. Go to www.pseudopod.net to learn more about them. Lead singer, Kevin Carlberg (a brain cancer survivor himself), brought Joey and another boy up on stage to "jam with the band". You could tell by the huge smile on Joey's face that he enjoyed playing the tambourine and shaker. Kevin and the rest of the band smiled as they watched the enjoyment the kids got from being up on stage with "the band".

The marathon ran throughout the night. Coordinator Katie Cummings said dancers kept moving into the early hours of the morning. To keep up morale the group took breaks from dancing to play musical chairs and have relay races.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, 25 of the 100 dancers who started out remained. Freshman Holly Phillips said she managed one hour of sleep in her 16 hours at the event. "Seeing the kids made the whole event worthwhile. Everyone left happy," Phillips said. "I stay up normally. I love to dance. So I just came down and it was absolutely worth it," sophomore Jessica Manus said after dancing nearly the entire night.

The last hour of the event winded down as comedians for D.C.'s The Improv Comedy Club took the stage to keep the last of the crowd awake for the home stretch. Allyson Jaffe, Paul Schorsch, Jim Dau, and Matt Kazam perked up the tired dancers with stand-up jokes. Jaffe had done charity work for the Children's Hospital before and when contacted by Student Confederation, she agreed to come and help out.

The event ended at noon, leaving all participants a little tired, but very pleased. They raised $2,000.00, great for a first-time event. DJ Josh Levine, who has worked with the Children's Hospital in the past, also volunteered his services to the marathon. He summed up the general feeling. "When you see the battles the kids have overcome it really means a lot to come out here."