P4K, a charity dance marathon created by Pace University students, is expected to shut down next year due to the dramatic decline in participants over the last two years.

According to Angela Ramirez, Executive Director of P4K ’17, there were over 200 participants registered during this time last year versus the 50 participants registered for P4K currently.

P4K was originally created by Pace students in order to be more active in their community and help sick children from Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital who are facing life-threatening diseases.

Aside from the decline in participants, P4K has also been facing an issue with budgeting. In the past years, it was able to receive funding from SDCA and SGA but the money was given to a different organization this year.

However, P4K is undergoing several changes in order to get more attention from students and to make it more suitable for the schedule that college students have. The event was originally 12 hours but was tailored to six and has been marketed a lot more this year.

“Our motto is we dance for the kids who can’t. We’re supposed to be standing the whole time because it’s your small burden giving back to the kids that don’t get to go out and play,” said Ramirez.

What separates P4K from other charities and organizations is that students are made aware of what particular part of treatment their money is going and they are able to see the impact that they are making on the children’s lives.

“Through the donations made by P4K over the years to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, they were able to open up a new MRI unit so that cancer patients can be diagnosed and treated faster,” said Ramirez.

All of the fundraising is done online by students and organizations on campus. The individual participants have separate fundraisers, which are later pooled together for one large donation.

Ramirez believes that every student should take a chance and participate in the event because they will be touched by the presence and stories of the sick children.

“Some of the kids that come here have been in and out of the hospital or has only been in the hospital. They come to P4K to get away from the hospital environment and to have fun,” said Ramirez.

Ramirez has been trying to get more participants recently by increasing promotion, sending out statements, emails, and messages through Orgsync to show students that P4K can be a great experience.

“My own sister passed away from sickle-cell anemia. There was this boy who, after three years of fighting sickle-cell anemia, showed no signs of having it. That’s why I want students to get involved and why I got involved,” said Ramirez.