Our guest on this episode is Pagie O’Keefe, who is the vice president of communications for HuskyTHON 2026. HuskyTHON is a year-long effort by UConn students to raise funds and awareness for Connecticut Children’s, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. This effort culminates in an 18-hour dance marathon that features thousands of Huskes. This year’s HuskyTHON dance marathon took place two weekends ago and over $2.2 million was raised. HuskyTHON is the largest Children’s Miracle Dance Marathon in the country by participants and the second-highest by amount raised. HuskyTHON is entirely student-run, led by a management team of 32 undergraduate student leaders, who work to make it better each year. Over the past 27 years, HuskyTHON has now raised over $17 million.
Listen to Episode 159 on Podbean
Mike: Welcome to another episode of the UConn 360 Podcast. Mike Enright from University Communications along with Izzy Harris from University Communications. Hello, Izzy.
Izzy: Hey, Mike. How is it going?
Mike: You just had a little mishap in the lobby of the Lakeside building, I hear.
Izzy: I did. It was very unfortunate. And I hear that you had the same mishap.
Mike: I did have the same thought. I wasn’t going to say anything until you said something, but—
Izzy: So basically, Mike and I both saw this package of printer paper that was orange and white, and we both immediately jumped to the fact that we thought it was Dunkin’ Donuts, but we soon realized it was just printer paper.
Mike: And I think we were both happy it was printer paper because—
Izzy: Happy?
Mike: Well, I don’t think either of us can say no to Dunkin’ Donuts.
Izzy: No, I can’t. And I also just had Dairy Bar, like I said, so ice cream plus donuts. But you know what? You only live once, so why not?
Mike: What’s your favorite Dunkin’ donut?
Izzy: Ooh, that’s a tough question, but I have—that’s what—
Mike: We are around here. We ask the tough, probing questions at UConn 360.
Izzy: Oh yeah. So, my favorite is a limited-edition donut. It’s the brownie batter one that they have around Valentine’s Day. Yes, it’s in heart shape. It has brownie batter in the middle, and you just can’t beat that.
Mike: I’m going to tell you mine. It’s underrated. I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but I think it’s most underrated is maple frosted.
Izzy: Ooh.
Mike: Kinda underrated.
Izzy: I agree—underrated. But I also love anything maple.
Mike: So, our guest today is one of those people, and one of those organizations, that just makes you feel good about being a citizen of UConn. And as you listen to the interview, you are going to notice it is only I asking the questions because of some scheduling conflicts—Izzy has class tonight.
Izzy: I was going to say, speaking of being a citizen of UConn, duty calls, and I have to go to my six o’clock class.
Mike: So, we’re kind of taping this podcast in sections. So, if you do not hear Izzy asking a question, it is not indifference to the subject—she’s hard at work. Our guest today is Paige O’Keeffe. She’s the Vice President of Communications for HuskyTHON. HuskyTHON is a year-long philanthropic effort by UConn students to raise funds and awareness for Connecticut Children’s, a great hospital in Hartford which is part of the Children’s Miracle Network. And they just had their big event of the year. They fundraise all year, but they just had their 18-hour dance marathon. Thousands of UConn students taking part to dance. It was held at the UConn Volleyball Center this year, and they raised $2.2 million. How about that?
Izzy: That’s amazing.
Mike: So—
Izzy: Is that their highest yet?
Mike: I believe it’s the highest yet. Well, I’ll have to ask Paige when she gets here. Of all the Children’s Miracle dance marathons in the country, it’s the biggest by participation and the second highest by the amount raised. So, there are 32 undergraduate students here at UConn that manage the whole thing, and over the past 27 years it’s really grown. It’s raised a total of $17 million. So, Izzy, have a great class, and through the miracle of editing, we’re about to bring Paige in. So, Paige, welcome to the UConn 360 Podcast.
Paige: Thank you.
Mike: So, tell us a little bit—it sounds like it was another successful HuskyTHON this year.
Paige: Yes, it sure was.
Mike: And we’re so proud of all your UConn students that put so much time and effort into it for such a good cause.
Paige: Oh, thank you.
Mike: Tell us a little bit about this year’s event—maybe what made it unique? How many students took part? And we know it was in a different location this year because of the renovations to the Field House.
Paige: Yeah, definitely lots of different things going on this year. We honestly had a really wonderful year. I think what kind of made this year unique is sort of where we left off last year. We hit the $2 million mark for the first time, which was so exciting, and I think it brought a lot of new eyes into our organization and more people being really excited about what we had going on. So, coming into this year, we made it a priority to make sure that our participant experience was going to be really special and a positive experience for everyone involved. And I think our management team did a really, really good job of making sure that everyone in our community felt supported and heard—really excited about what we had going on this year. We broke a new record in terms of participants. We had 4,860 UConn students taking part, and a good chunk of them joined us in the Volleyball Center this past weekend. Yeah, we just danced our heart out for the kids that can’t.
Mike: So, tell me a little bit—take a step backwards—tell me a little bit about yourself.
Paige: Sure.
Mike: Where did you grow up, and how did you get involved in the HuskyTHON, and why the cause is important to you?
Paige: Sure. I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts—Littleton, Mass. And coming to UConn, I didn’t really know a lot about what was going on. I had planned to join a few organizations, but I remember back in my tour in December before committing to the university that someone had mentioned this 18‑hour dance marathon. And I had danced my whole life, so that sounded super exciting.
Mike: I had done programs like Relay for Life back home, so sort of raising awareness and money for other people was really close to my heart. So then when I discovered this on campus, I was actually walking to the Student Union one day and a guy named Luke Phillips, who was the director of our first‑year dancer program at the time, just kind of stopped me and was like, “Hey, do you want to join this really cool organization?”
Paige: And I was like, “Tell me about it.” And he was like, “Well, 18‑hour dance marathon, and we fundraise all year long, and we celebrate, and it’s a great time, and it’s going to change your life.” And I said, “All right, deal. Sign me up.” And here we are multiple years later.
Mike: And has it changed your life?
Paige: Sure has.
Mike: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So, you said how many students take part in it, and how many students were part of the actual dance marathon?
Paige: Sure. So annually we have about 4,000 students signing up. This year we had 4,860—was our number on day‑of. In terms of the ones that come to the actual event, that varies a lot year‑to‑year. I would say 2,500 to 3,000 actually join us day‑of.
Mike: It’s a huge number of students.
Paige: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really great, yeah.
Mike: How do you keep—like you said—how do you keep them nourished and entertained? And do people take naps? I mean, how do you make it through a dance marathon?
Paige: It’s definitely a challenge. We get a lot of support from UConn Dining. They help us provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of our participants, as well as—we have a whole team that outreaches to get other food and refreshments on site with us day‑of to help our students stay fueled throughout the day. They are able to take naps if they want to. I find a lot of people will usually just sort of step out for a little bit if they’re feeling like they need it. But a large portion of our internal team does stay the entire day, and, you know, we just do it all together.
Mike: And what are the hours of the marathon?
Paige: We start at 6:00 AM and then do our final reveal at midnight.
Mike: So, it’s not overnight?
Paige: No.
Mike: No. Okay. But 6:00 AM for college students is pretty—yeah—pretty early to get up.
Paige: We originated in 1999, and back then it was called Midnight Marathon. So, they would start at 6:00 PM and go till noon the following day.
Mike: So, they didn’t go overnight. Okay, all right. So, tell us—I know one of the big things is the actual children, patients who have cancer, or is it all kinds of diseases?
Paige: Any childhood illness. Yeah. Anyone that was treated at Connecticut Children’s.
Mike: A number of them come to the marathon and come with their parents. And you have a— for lack of a better term—a parade or something like that? Tell us a little bit about that. And that’s got to be a very meaningful and emotional time for you guys.
Paige: Absolutely. Yeah. We had 27 families joining us this year, which was so special. Some kids on their own with their parents, some kids with their siblings and grandmas and grandpas and uncles. It’s a really special time. We do welcome them with what we call our Miracle Tunnel. At the beginning of the day, they usually—
Mike: Miracle Tunnel?
Paige: Yes. Yep. For the parade. Usually, they arrive at about 10:00 AM and we bring them through the parade. We’ll line up everyone that’s in our space at the time, whether it be the Field House or Volleyball Center, and everyone’s there, and they make a gigantic tunnel. And then the kids get to walk through with their families and their dancer representatives—who are basically like our team captains for any organization that the child is paired with. And they walk through the tunnel, and we’re cheering them on the whole way. And at the end of the tunnel, they get to go up on stage, and they share a word—their Miracle Word—that we call it, basically the one that they live by that has supported them through their journey.
Mike: What are some of the words the families use? Do you remember?
Paige: Yeah, some of them—a lot of them are pretty kid‑friendly, so like “hope” and “love” and stuff like that. Some of our younger kiddos—we’ll hold up the mic and ask them what their Miracle Word is, and sometimes they don’t remember what they were told to say. Last year we had a funny instance where one of the kids just said “dinosaur.” So, we get some cute reactions out of it too.
Mike: So how do you think—you know, you’re obviously the—you know; this is a big part of your life. A big part of your UConn experience. How do you think it’ll affect you in the future?
Paige: Oh, I think in so many ways. I’m in my student teaching right now, so supporting kids and caring for kids is really close to my heart. But this has forever changed my life just in terms of my professionalism, the way that I bring myself into spaces, the way that I have gained so many skills from this in terms of my various positions that I’ve held throughout the four years that I’ve been a part of it. And also, just a general takeaway—that we should always be giving back to others and always supporting others. All those things.
Mike: Now you’re in the Neag School, right?
Paige: I am.
Mike: Yeah. And what’s your major?
Paige: Elementary Ed.
Mike: And you’re a senior.
Paige: Yes.
Mike: And we know you came right from student teaching today. So, a little shout‑out to your student teaching in the Vernon Public Schools.
Paige: Yep. Shout‑out.
Mike: How’s that going?
Paige: It’s going well. Yeah.
Mike: Yeah. Did you tell them about the dance marathon?
Paige: A little bit. This past semester, I had to run off to a lot of meetings really quickly after school, and they’d always ask where I was going. I said, “Oh, I’m going to help other kids.”
Mike: Now, when you graduate—you’ll graduate this spring?
Paige: Yes.
Mike: And do you have to do more schooling after that, or can you go right into the workforce?
Paige: We have a master’s degree built into our program. I’ll actually be going abroad to London to do the first half of that, and then—
Mike: Oh, good for you.
Paige: Yeah. And then back here at Storrs in the spring.
Mike: Oh, that’s exciting. Yeah. So, you know, you hear so many things about people not caring, and college students just kind of being self‑absorbed sometimes. This has to—you know; I think it makes UConn and college students in general look really good. It has to feel really positive for the people involved in it.
Paige: Oh, absolutely. It’s incredible to see so many students coming to the Volleyball Center on a Saturday and just dancing their hearts out all day long. Like, it takes a really special person to be able to do that—and not even commit themselves to that day, but our entire year of fundraising. We start back on June 1st and have multiple participants signing up that day and fundraising that day and taking it all the way to the end of March 7th.
Mike: What other fundraising do you do?
Paige: So, we fundraise all year long through multiple different mediums. We have a platform called DonorDrive, where anyone can submit a donation. We have Facebook fundraisers that people can set up with their own Facebook accounts. A lot of students like to take part in canning, where we’ll go and stand outside a grocery store and ask patrons for donations. Lots of different ways to fundraise.
Mike: So, if people still want to make a donation now, can they do it?
Paige: Yeah, absolutely. Our DonorDrive page, I believe, is still open until April 1st. And then it closes from April 1st until June 1st when we get ready for the next year to begin. But Connecticut Children’s—if you go to Connecticut Children’s Foundation, they always have a donation link there, and the money all goes to the same place. So, it’s all the same.
Mike: That’s great. And I was going to say—so next year, when do you start planning for next year’s event?
Paige: Right away. Yeah. Right now, we’re sort of in a gray period where we’re getting ready to transition our positions over to new people and new participants, which is really exciting. And then once they get their positions, they’ll be off and running.
Mike: Now will you be around for next year, or you’ll be in London?
Paige: I’ll be in London for the fall, but I’ve extended my support as much as I possibly can.
Mike: That’s great. Yeah, that’s great. Well, congratulations to you and the whole HuskyTHON committee. Everybody at UConn is really proud of you.
Paige: Oh, thank you so much. We’ve gotten a lot of really great feedback over the past few days, so—very excited.
Mike: Well, it’s well deserved. It’s well deserved. Our guest today on the UConn 360 Podcast—Paige O’Keeffe, Vice President of Communications of this year’s HuskyTHON. A great effort by UConn students to show care for the community. And thank you for joining us today, and we’ll talk to you next time on the next UConn 360 Podcast.