Students attend summer leadership conference for pediatric health
Four students on the Southern Indiana Dance Marathon (SIDM) Executive Board attended the Children’s Miracle Network’s National Ignite Peer-To-Peer Leadership Conference in Indianapolis, July 16-19. Each year, this conference brings together over 400-plus student leaders, campus advisors and hospital partners from across the country to network, learn best practices, develop leadership skills and hone programmatic strategies that have led to dance marathon success nationwide, while spending the weekend planning for the upcoming year.
Students attending were:
-
Natalie Restivo, Co-President; nursing major
-
Andrea Villasenor, Co-President; marketing major
-
Dayne Pollard, Vice President of Finance; accounting major
-
Daylon Pollard, Director of Finance/Director of Corporate Relations; accounting major
“After attending this conference, I was telling one of my friends about it and she said, ‘You are making such a sparkling impact on the world.’ I feel like this is what this conference was about: inspiring college students to make impacts in their communities by advocating and fundraising for pediatric healthcare," said Natalie Restivo, SIDM Co-President and nursing major. “I can't wait to see our dance marathon take off as well as support the leaders from other organizations we met!”
Dayne Pollard, SIDM Vice President of Finance and accounting major, said, “My favorite part of this conference was that it was an amazing opportunity for like-minded people to all come together to support a cause that’s bigger than themselves. This conference brought together people who already understood how important Children’s Miracle Network’s initiatives are, and the product was a culture of care that inspired everybody there to take further action to better their fundraising efforts.”
For the past 15 years, SIDM has been a USI student organization focused on supporting Riley kids and their families by raising money and awareness during an annual dance marathon. Funds raised directly support pediatric research and patient/family support programs. SIDM is one of eight Collegiate Dance Marathons within the state of Indiana supporting Riley Hospital for Children through Riley Children's Foundation.