Making a total of $61,411 in the last year, RDM has made a comeback from its previous year before that, despite going through a pandemic. The organization was able to regain its footing after being restricted by COVID-19 precautions limiting them from conducting their normal activities.

Jorie Depalma, school social worker and faculty advisor for RDM, explained that RDM was outside in the stadium the year before, but now the organization is back in the field house. This made it a first for juniors to experience a Riley Dance Marathon. Their freshman year was canceled, their sophomore year was in the stadium, but now they were able to experience it in the field house for the very first time.

However, despite the difficulties that they encountered the previous year, the organization rebounded themselves and got back on track.

“We are still rebuilding from the impact that COVID has had, but I think that our organization and the students have shown a lot of commitment and resilience to the cause. We’ve never wavered in our fundraising efforts and so they’ve raised over $61,000 which is like a $21,000 increase from last year’s fundraising,” Depalma said.

For the upcoming years to come, RDM’s goal is to continue hosting fun safe events to let students celebrate the miracles that happen at Riley’s, Riley’s families and the students who gave so much of themselves to fundraise. Depalma also mentioned that she wants to leave the organization in a position to be successful for the future years to come. 

Senior Ellie Brown, and former president of RDM, couldn’t have been more proud of the work and dedication that the organization put in. For the future of RDM, Brown hopes to strive for improvement, doing better than they did this year in the one to come.

“I think this year our goal is to just do better than the past year, but the next year for the people taking over, I think their goal is to keep the momentum of RDM alive and make sure we’re still recovering from COVID well and that it continues to be one of the most successful organizations at Southport,” Brown said.