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FSU gives part of Dance Marathon money to Shands Hospital

The 2013 Florida State University Dance Marathon Overall Committee will be presenting a $701,493.16 check to Shands Hospital in Gainesville Friday.

The check will be presented at 2 p.m.

The money will be used to renovate the neonatal intensive care unit, said Heather Mears, director of Children’s Miracle Network at Shands.

Dance Marathon is a philanthropy event where students stand for a long period of time — 40 hours at FSU and 26.2 hours at the University of Florida — to raise money for children and the Children’s Miracle Network.

The check being presented is only part of the money FSU raised this year.  The other half will stay locally in Tallahassee and go to the college of medicine’s pediatric unit and Gadsden County, said Jake Poteat, 2013 overall director of FSU's Dance Marathon.

“They have a lot more opportunities in the North Florida area,” he said, which is why FSU donates some of the money it raises to Shands.

FSU gives some of the money it raises at Dance Marathon to Shands every year, Mears said.  It just may not be presented publically every year.

Breanna is a reporter for WUFT News and can be contacted by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.