Chicago Children’s Hospital Patients, Staff Star in Music Video
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Northwestern University Dance Marathon(CHICAGO) — Young patients, nurses and doctors at a Chicago hospital danced and sang thanks to college students raising money to help make their hospital a cheerier place to be.
The patients and staff at Children’s Hospital University of Illinois are the stars of a YouTube video in which they lip-sync to the American Authors’ song “Best Day of My Life.”
The video, with 1,000 views and counting, was made by students at Northwestern University for the school’s upcoming Dance Marathon fundraiser.
“We thought it’d be an awesome idea to film inside the hospital to brighten the kids’ day and to highlight the kids’ stories and what we can do to help with Dance Marathon,” Ross Gordon, a Northwestern senior and the event’s public relations co-chair, told ABC News.
Proceeds from the Dance Marathon event, during which more than 1,000 students will dance for 30 hours straight, will go to the Starlight Children’s Foundation to help them build “beautifully designed treatment rooms and teen lounges” in hospitals, according to Gordon.
The video shoot involved six Northwestern students who coordinated the production and then sat back and watched as the young patients and their doctors and nurses had a blast filming it.
“The smiles on their faces were fantastic,” said Gordon, 22. “Some were a little shy to start, but when you have so many smiling nurses dancing it brightened the mood and they definitely got into it.”
“One of my favorite parts is when a doctor in the back started twirling a stethoscope,” he said. “The doctors and nurses especially got really into it.”
The two-minute video is being used now to help encourage donations and will also be shown when Northwestern students hit the dance floor from 7 p.m. on Friday, March 6, through 1 a.m. on Sunday, March 8.
“The whole idea is to unite our campus around advocacy and giving back to a good cause,” Gordon said.
Northwestern University Dance Marathon, in its 41st year, has raised more than $1 million each of the last four years, according to Gordon.
“This year, we’re using the theme ‘Make Life Bright’ and #makelifebright with the goal of making hospitals a more welcoming and soothing experience for the children we’re supporting,” he said.
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