On February 6, members of the high school, through a collaboration with University of Connecticut (UConn) put on a Dance-a-THON to support the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center(CCMC). The Dance-a-THON was created to emulate the Husky-THON that is put on annually at UConn. At the collegiate level, students engage in an 18-hour dance marathon.

  “This is the first year that Farmington has done anything like this. South Windsor does it, Newington does it, and they raise several thousands of dollars each year,” social studies teacher Patrick Mulcahy said.

  The event was a little different than UConn’s. It lasted for five hours, and there were alternative activities, such as basketball, ping pong, dodgeball and dance lessons.

“We want[ed] to get a range of activities so we could get a range of people to come because we know that sports are only gonna apply to a good chunk of school, but not everyone,” Mulcahy said.

  In order to participate, students had to raise a minimum of $10 through fundraising. The group was able to generate $222 from standing outside Stop and Shop for four hours.

  According to Mulcahy, all of the According to junior Caroline Cullen, she participated because she wanted to get the experience of event planning and seeing the impact on the community.

  Principal Bill Silva said, “I would love to see something like this happen on a regular basis. I think Mr. Mulcahy and the other teachers involved have done a great job promoting this event, and everybody looks to be up and enjoying themselves.”

  The emergence of this new program has garnered teacher support.

  English teacher Tracey Barlow said, “As a veteran teacher who has been here for over 20 years, it’s really nice to see new teachers, try to make a difference outside the classroom. So I think it’s wonderful to see Mr. Mulcahy just be so energetic and passionate about this program.”