Team Joseph, an organization founded to help fund research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has been chosen as the primary beneficiary for Northwestern University Dance Marathon 2014, NUDM announced Thursday.
Team Joseph is a Detroit-based nonprofit organization that aims to “aggressively fund cutting edge research” toward a treatment or cure for Duchenne, according to their website. Duchenne is a sex-linked disease found in young boys that leads to muscle degeneration – often leaving patients in braces or a wheelchair – and eventually death. Team Joseph was founded by Marissa Penrod in honor of her son Joseph, who was diagnosed with the disease.
“They really provide a beacon of hope,” NUDM PR Co-chair Summer Delaney said. “They’re really committed to finding a cure for Joseph and all kids with Duchenne.”
Team Joseph was among the finalists selected by NUDM’s executive co-chairs, Anna Radoff and Josh Parish, for the 2014 beneficiary. It was then chosen as the official primary beneficiary by a unanimous vote of the NUDM executive board.
Team Joseph is similar to the NUDM 2013 primary beneficiary, the Danny Did Foundation, in that both were formed around one family’s fight against a disease. This kind of intimate partnership with a family, though, is one of Dance Marathon’s most defining features, NUDM PR Co-chair David Harris said.
“We think the personal connections that dancers form with those that are benefitting most directly from the funding … is really a core pillar of what Dance Marathon stands for,” Harris said. “It’s so much more than just the fundraising that we do.”
NUDM is also reaching out to Feinberg School of Medicine professor Dr. Nancy Kuntz to help connect them to the local Duchenne community. Kuntz is the director of the muscular dystrophy clinic at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
According to Harris, having Kuntz as a resource was a consideration in choosing Team Joseph as the new beneficiary.
“It deepens our connection with Northwestern in finding a professor whose work is truly astonishing and who is very prominent within this field,” Harris said.
Also announced was that NUDM’s secondary beneficiary for the upcoming year will once again be the Evanston Community Foundation.
“They are a wonderful, dedicated group that helps support so many different causes like education and combating homelessness,” Harris said, “and our relationship with them is one of the most shining examples of our commitment as a university of giving back.”
According to NUDM, Dance Marathon 2014 will be held March 7-9, and it will be celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Be sure to check out our interviews with Team Joseph’s CEO and the 2014 NUDM executive co-chairs.