Since 2005, DanceBlue has been a unique part of campus life at UK. Each year, hundreds of students participate, spending 24 consecutive hours dancing the day and night away, all in an effort to raise money for the Golden Matrix Fund, benefiting the UK Pediatric Oncology Center and Markey Cancer Center. This weekend, the sixth DanceBlue marathon will be held in Memorial Coliseum.With the marathon being such a positive part of the culture of the university, it has always been important for UK Athletics to be involved such a worthy cause, including providing the venue for DanceBlue and setup for the event. Never, though, has the involvement of UK players, coaches and staff been more apparent than in 2011.”DanceBlue is a huge thing for our campus,” assistant director of marketing Nathan Schwake said. “We’re also fortunate to have our own student spirit organization, TEAM WILDCAT, participating in DanceBlue this year with Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow.”Dancers participating in the marathon raise money to fund their participation and TEAM WILDCAT is one of the many student organizations taking part in DanceBlue. At a student ticket lottery last month, TEAM WILDCAT held a raffle that raised $1,500 to sponsor its dancers. UK Hoops coach Matthew Mitchell addressed the crowd and, with men’s basketball coach John Calipari, matched the $1,500 raised during the raffle. However, involvement by TEAM WILDCAT is not limited to participating in the event itself. “It’s something we have not done before through our student spirit organization and those kids have been eager to get involved and find out ways to help DanceBlue above and beyond just having the team,” Schwake said. At both men’s and women’s basketball games this week, DanceBlue has been front and center. Informational sheets about the event have been passed out and on-court promotions have been featured during halftime and a timeout. The signature blue and yellow colors that represent the cause have been worn by both the cheerleading and dance teams.Numerous athletes, teams and coaches will visit the dancers and provide entertainment at DanceBlue. For example, UK football players and the dance team will put on a skit during the marathon. Football coach Joker Phillips asked freshman wide receiver Ed Berry if he could lead the production of the skit, but Berry wanted to be more involved.”Coach Phillips was talking about sponsoring a dancer and putting together a little skit and if I wanted to head it up,” Berry said. “I said it’s an awesome cause, so I’ll (dance) the whole 24 hours.”Once he made the decision to dance, the next step was for him to find people who would donate to the cause and fund his involvement. Berry knew he could count on his teammates. From their own money, UK football players donated $300 to fund Berry’s dancing with Phillips matching that total.”It was awesome,” Berry said. “Coach Phillips said he would announce (Berry’s participation) in a meeting to see who can sponsor you and he would match whatever I got. So many of the guys were willing to give some of their money to a great cause.”UK students so often show their support of athletes in their on-field endeavors and this is a case of athletes returning the favor.”These are the same students who have class with our student-athletes,” Schwake said. “They’re friends, they come and support our student-athletes throughout the year. It’s a cool thing to see our student-athletes want to give back to them and support them in (DanceBlue).”Proceeds from DanceBlue will enhance the lives of children and families suffering from childhood cancer through the Golden Matrix Fund. Last year alone, DanceBlue raised 636,638.58 for UK Children’s Hospital Pediatric Oncology Clinic.To learn more or donate to DanceBlue visit DanceBlue.org. You can also follow DanceBlue on Twitter.