Texas THON History

In 2001, a graduate student named Laurence Bolotin came to the University of Texas at Austin. Bolotin, who had been an active and enthusiastic participant in Dance Marathon at the University of Florida as an undergraduate, was shocked that UT did not have a Dance Marathon despite the university’s size and prominence. He set out to change that and start UT’s own Dance Marathon. 

After seeking out students who were interested in bringing the Dance Marathon movement to the Forty Acres, Bolotin and fellow student Jennifer Hermann, who would go on to serve as the first Overall Chair of the University of Texas Dance Marathon, eventually recruited a committee of sixteen people.

2003: The first Dance Marathon at the University of Texas was held in Gregory Gym, supporting Children’s Hospital of Austin.

2004: Michael and Susan Dell Foundation made a historic $25M leadership gift to the building of the Children’s Medical Center, thus naming it Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas

June 30, 2007: Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas opened

2012: UT Dance Marathon rebranded as Texas THON.

2022: Texas THON celebrates its 20th Dance Marathon with our year-long campaign, “For Years to Come”