It’s Friday night, but school is not yet over. Students busily prepare the Commons, gym, and music room for the annual event sponsored by Future Doctors of America, Woothon (FDA).

Woothon is a fundraising event for the Children’s National Hospital. People can earn hours for Math Honor Society, STARS, and Science National Honor Society. It was held this year on Mar. 16 from 6-9 p.m..

Junior officers Rena Edery and Jason Cao, along with other officers put weeks into the organization of Woothon. Edery serves as the vice president of FDA and will be president next year. Edery was also the head of the fundraising committee. “A lot goes into planning and organizing Woothon.

We had to contact someone at UMD and hold frequent club meetings to brainstorm, plan, advertise, and fundraise,” Edery said. “We had to talk to Mr. Hill about the financials and logistics. It’s a concept that’s been done many times successfully by large scale college student body organizations, but on a much smaller scale it’s harder to garner the support and permission we need for anything.”

All officers worked hard to make Woothon as successful as it was. “Michelle and Margaret and Jason work extremely hard I cannot emphasize that enough. They’re amazing. I played such a small role compared to them and I will be much more active next year,” Edery said.

This year, Woothon was originally supposed to be a dance marathon. “We decided it would be better to just set up various activities. There was badminton and ping pong in the gym, food in the Commons, and a movie playing in the chorus room. “More people came this year because admission was only $5 compared to the $20 charged last year,” Cao said.

Prior to the event, the officers fundraised through bake sales and made posters, put up throughout the school. “We were pretty successful bringing in about $370 plus $244 from fundraising so well over $500, which was the goal,” Cao said.

For Woothon, FDA needed to get building services, teacher chaperones, and the club sponsor involved. They needed to talk to the head of STARS and NHS so they could offer hours. “We hope to do better next year, but any amount we can give to children’s hospital is a victory. Next year I want to start advertising way earlier and if it is really something we want to execute make it a club priority so everyone in the club is pitching in.

If we can bring in a middle school crowd, have it outside even like a rave with dancing, music, and bubbles, kind of like Midnight Madness.” Edery said. “I would love to bring a miracle family in to talk and inspire and plan a service trip with the club to Children’s National so everyone can see the impact of doing something like this. I want to make it a Wootton tradition and we need a really memorable event for that so Jason and I will probably start planning over the summer and have most logistical things done for the school year.”

Participants had a very time. “It was a blast. It was for a great cause. I didn’t want to leave. I can’t wait for Woothon next year,”junior Cindy Huang, Math Honor Society member.

Overall, Woothon was a huge success this year. “It was successful in that a lot of people came. Next year we are going to try and find the best balance and maybe make the event shorter or maybe do a moviethon. Woothon will be super fun next year. Follow “@jasonkcao” to keep up with more events on Woothon,” Cao said.

Hannah Ho

Back Page Editor