First, check out this video. Basically, students at Baldwin Wallace got two pieces of fence and a boombox and stood at various places around campus, giving passersby a chance to go between the fences and dance for a couple seconds. They then got a flyer that gave them a discount code for registration for the annual Dance Marathon.
- No one is being forced to do anything. A student who didn’t want to dance was able to walk around the fences or just keep going. The students with the fences did not attack anyone with random dancing, they just gave them the option.
- Fun is the best way to change behavior! What’s better than dancing for a some extra endorphins?
- Participating took very little time out of their day, with HUGE impact. If students couldn’t stop walking to get to class on time, they could still dance-walk their way through with a smile without losing any time. Basically, a student had nothing to lose by participating. But if they wanted to linger, they totally could! Did you see that one couple that just slow danced in-between the fences?
- Students were able to express themselves in their unique way. Dance is a very broad activity. No one told a student how to dance, and look at all the different styles that people came up with! Slow dancing, shaking their thing, silly arm movements, twirling, etc. The blender event says: Hey, what can YOU bring to the table?
Here are some great quotes from two of the students who put the Fence Day together:
“It was such an easy event to put together and execute! You could tell people were really confused at first and there were definitely people who weren’t in the mood to dance, but the ones who really got into made the event a success! The best part was that all people were doing was dancing and then once we gave them the flyer about Dance Marathon it made a much bigger impact, while still just being fun and goofy!”
– Annette Fetter, Junior, Public Relations & Marketing Chair for Dance Marathon 2014
“People would walk toward us and we could see how hard they were trying to look the other way and avoid us. With the increased positive energy being expelled by us they couldn’t deny our smiling faces. Standing in the cold was so worth it with every person we inspired to dance.”
– Heather Schier, Senior, Educational Programming Chair for Dance Marathon 2014
Inspired yet? 😉
