Hundreds of students, as well as families of children affected by illness, joined Pace 4 Kids (P4K) as it held its fourth annual Dance Marathon in order to support Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital Saturday in Kessel.

Participants danced for eight-straight hours in the Gottesman room, while families of children treated by Maria Fareri shared their stories.

“It is really great for the patients because they are so enwrapped in the next doctor visit, the next test results,” co-founder and Pace Alumni Advisor, Caitlin Kirschbaum said. “[P4K] is just a party. It makes them feel special, they can just dance with the big kids, and that to them just makes their night.”

One parent, Mellissa Mercado, spoke about how she supports P4K for her daughter, Sophia Mercado, who received three neurosurgical interventions from Maria Fareri.

“I think what we love most about P4K is the students,” Mellissa Mercado said. “[Sophia Mercado] really looks forward to coming here, spending time with the students, dancing with them getting to know them, and just having a great time where she’s not the patient.”

Another mom, Dianna Miranda, explained how her son Tyrus Castrovinci’s needed open heart surgery at six months old because he was born with a hole in his heart and how Maria Fareri saved him.

“Since he received open heart surgery he has been doing great,” Miranda said. “His heart is practically like normal. They repaired the hole in his heart, they fixed the ventricles, and he started karate today, he plays soccer, and he plays baseball.”

Parent Silvana Larkin talked about how her son Daniel Larkin was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis, which prevented him from gaining weight because his small intestine didn’t open up and allow food to pass through. He received the first balloon dilation in the United States, which saved his life.

“Now he’s slowly gaining the weight back that he should have had,” Silvana Larkin said. “Maria Ferari was very pleasant, they took care of us well.”

Posters lined the walls with facts about pediatric care including that every minute 62 children are admitted to a children’s hospital, that every hour 675 children are treated for trauma, 39 for diabetes, 92 for cancer, 39 babies are placed in a neonatal intensive care unit, and 97 receive surgeries, according to the Children’s Miracle Network.

P4K raised $18,783.42, which will go directly to expanding the pediatric oncology unit, according to Maria Fareri Communications Director, Andy LaGuardia.

The goal was initially $30,000 goal and funds were raised through direct donations, raffles, and auctioning off shirts and paintings.

“Every single penny you raise stays local; you can literally drive past [Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital] every single day if you wanted too,” Kirschbaum said. “Even if we don’t reach our goal, the fact that our money is going towards treating patients with pediatric cancer, you can’t get anything better than that.”

Kirschbaum challenged Pace to always keep the patients, and not the money the central focus of P4K.

“I’d love to be able to come back as an [alumna] in P4K in its tenth year and still be able to keep the patients at the core of the event,” Kirschbaum said. “It’s always going to be about fundraising, but it’s always going to be about the patients.”

Students noted how P4K united the community more than most events on campus.

“P4K is always a wonderful event—it allows the Pace community to really come together and support a really good cause,” senior Christopher Walker said. “It’s always interesting to see the kind of support it gets from the Pace community, because a lot of the time clubs and organizations host events and they don’t really get a lot of attention, but a lot of people show up to this.”