RebelTHON Raises More than Quarter of $1 million for Children’s of Mississippi

By Tavia Moore
Hottytoddy.com intern
tmoore4@go.olemiss.edu

The University of Mississippi hosted its annual RebelTHON fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 15 to raise money for Children’s of Mississippi, the state’s only children’s hospital. The all-night dance event took place in the Tad Smith Coliseum and raised a total of $252,571.89.

Thousands of Ole Miss students participated in the 12-hour dance marathon in a mission to stand for children who cannot physically do it themselves.

UM Students raised more than a quarter of a million dollars to donate to Children’s of Mississippi Saturday, Feb. 15. Photo via RebelTHON’s Facebook page.

President of RebelTHON, Jamie Sproles, said there is a ton of thought and effort that goes into fundraising for each RebelTHON member.

“This effort takes a whole year to pull off, which is often surprising to some people, but it all culminates with an impressive fundraising total lifted up at the close of each year’s event,” Sproles said.

“Our main approach to fundraising is peer-to-peer fundraising. Every student that registers for RebelTHON gets a link to a personal fundraising page that they can customize, invite donors, and keep track of their fundraising total throughout the year.”

Because of the organization’s relentless dedication and unwavering commitment to achieving its goal, last year RebelTHON raised a total of $258,252 – an amount that Sproles and so many others are proud of.

“Children’s of Mississippi is grateful for donations of any size. With that being said, we always aim to reach as far as we can and that desire translates to the total we hope to raise at 1 a.m. of this year’s dance marathon,” she said.

Sproles looks forward to seeing how the contributions and efforts made by the students at the University of Mississippi will impact the Children’s of Mississippi in the near future.

“This hospital treats 410 children statewide every single day. These children and families would not have the services they need without the dedication of college students here at Ole Miss. We are choosing to serve the greater community and state of Mississippi while just being average students, which I find impressive in its own right,” she said.

“Our efforts are impacting hundreds of children every single day, especially since the hospital is undergoing an expansion to grow the hospital. This expansion, opening in fall 2020, has been our main focus for this year’s efforts.”