Just like countless other sports, clubs and after school activities, the McDance- A – Thon, which was scheduled for March 21, was cancelled as a result of COVID- 19. 

Hosted each year by the McLean McDance-A-Thon club, the McDance-A-Thon raises money for the Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC. The seven hour dance is filled with music, games and, of course, dancing. Participants can meet children that the fundraising has helped and compete in fun challenges with them. At the end of the night, there’s one giant flash mob.

“We have a dance that one of the committees plan and throughout the night we teach it to the crowd, so that by the end of the night we have a whole dance,” said fundraising committee co-head, junior Tala Malkawi.

This year, however, FCPS has cancelled all extracurricular activities, including McDance- A -Thon, in an attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus.

“COVID-19 continues to be a fast-moving event.  FCPS is continuing to evaluate our options going forward with the health and well-being of our students, employees, and community remaining the top priority,” an alert on the FCPS homepage.

View this post on Instagram

Unfortunately, due to school closures and the risk that comes with COVID-19, we have decided to postpone McDance-a-Thon for the time being. Thank you for all the hard work you have done for the kids at Children’s National this year! Donor drives are still open, so please keep fundraising while we decide how to move forward. We will post again when we have more information. #ftk

A post shared by McDance-a-Thon (@mcdanceathon) on Mar 13, 2020 at 11:24am PDT

Despite the cancellation of their biggest fundraiser, the club has taken the new developments in stride and is continuing to raise money. Donate Here.

“Our donor drives are staying open until June to collect donations,” Malkawi said.

The club has plans to reschedule once the coronavirus is contained.

“We aren’t sure yet when it will be as we don’t know how long schools will be closed for,” Malkawi said.

The club has been planning McDance-A-Thon since the start of the school year, and this setback is an understandable disappointment. Still, the club continues to be optimistic and find new ways to reach their goals.

“I was really sad to hear that the dance is cancelled as it’s something we’ve been working towards all year and it’s such an amazing event,” Malkawi said. “But I know it’s unsafe to have the dance right now so I’m trying to think of it as an extended opportunity to continue to raise money and hope that we will eventually have it.”