West Orange High Warriorthon surpassed $25,000 goal

Daniella Disciullo, a West Orange High School senior, has been working on this year’s Warriorthon since last year’s event. 

She knew after years of participating in the annual dance marathon that she wanted to take the lead, planning the fundraising efforts, theme of the dance marathon, games and more. 

Knowing the success in fundraising in past years and the tradition of this event, the pressure was on for Disciullo. 

She, along with about 150 other Student Government Association members, have been fundraising all year long, leading up to the main event: Warriorthon. 

Just as this year’s Warriorthon began at 6 p.m. Friday, March 7, Disciullo’s personal marathon of getting to that exact moment was over. All that was left was to enjoy the event and hope the SGA met its $25,000 goal for Children’s Miracle Network.

By the end of the night, students were celebrating raising $26,513.75. 

“It’s kind of surreal being here,” Disciullo said. “I’ve been talking about this since last year. … Seeing everyone being able to help and seeing all the moving parts come together has just really been exciting and kind of crazy to think about.”

At 6 p.m., the gym doors were opened and dozens of students came in ready to put on glow stick bracelets and necklaces to match the Neon Lights and Miracle Nights theme. 

Each student was given a hospital bracelet to wear as a reminder for their purpose of the night, to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. 

Making a difference

The bracelets weren’t the only reminder of the students’ why. 

Ocala’s Matt and Kim LaBranche attended Warriorthon with their sons, 7-year-old Owen and 4-year-old Kolby, to share Owen’s story.

Owen was born with total anomalous pulmonary venous return, a rare congenital heart defect. 

When Owen was born, the family spent the first 11 months in and out of the hospital, sometimes spending weeks at a time there. 

In his life, he’s had four open heart surgeries. The last one caused two strokes that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body and needing a pacemaker as well as led to an epilepsy diagnosis. 

Even with the pacemaker, the seizures didn’t stop. He was having 30 to 50 seizures per day, and medication wasn’t working. 

Brain surgery was the only option. The surgery disconnected the right and left side of his brain, leaving him seizure free. But brains regenerate, which meant Owen had to have another brain surgery in November 2023. He’s been seizure-free ever since. 

“We are so grateful for everything you guys do and all the funds you raise,” Kim LaBranche told the high school students. “It makes staying at the hospital so much easier, and you truly do not understand how much you do impacts the kids in the hospital.”

A group of SGA students were able to tour Orlando Health — Arnold Palmer Hospital to see the impact the money they raised has on children in the area. They also saw where the hospital is building its new children’s pavilion, which is where Disciullo said the money the school raised will go.

“To step outside and see the groundbreaking of this new building that’s going on just puts it into real perspective that what we’re doing, what our cause is, we’re truly helping everyone,” Disciullo said. 

Disciullo said it’s inspiring to hear from the Children’s Miracle Network families who share their stories with the students in person and through videos at Warriorthon. 

Dance the night away

Audrey Calvert, a West Orange High School senior, jumped on stage with senior Trinity Parker.

As a montage of songs from the 2000s blared on the speakers, Calvert and Parker led about 150 students in a choreographed morale dance for the first time.

Calvert, Parker and the mass of West Orange High’s Student Government Association danced their morale dance every hour during the four-hour Warriorthon.

Calvert knew from the moment last year’s Warriorthon ended that she wanted to be responsible for the dance. She had seen her sister, Cate, who graduated in 2023, choreograph the dance when she was a junior and senior and provided input. 

Knowing this was the dance that would be performed at least four times at Warriorthon and was a tradition for the dance marathon brought on some pressure for Calvert and Parker. 

“I wanted to make sure it was upbeat and everybody liked it,” Calvert said. “It was pressure at first, but once we started making it, it was really easy. It was a lot of fun. It was more fun than stressful.”

Parker and Calvert worked on the seven-minute dance for about a month, finding the perfect music and easy but upbeat choreography to match. 

Calvert said they listened to more than 100 songs from the 2000s to match the Neon Lights and Miracle Nights theme. They incorporated songs including Flo Rida’s “Low,” LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” V.I.C.’s “Wobble,” Kesha’s “Timber” and Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston’s “Eenie Meenie.”

With the music selected and dance moves choreographed, Calvert and Parker then had to teach it to 150 SGA members. Fortunately, the students were divided into three groups, making it easier to teach them. Twice per week for about a month, they took the students to the courtyard and taught them step by step. 

“It was definitely hard, because not everybody has the dance background, but we made sure the moves were easy enough for people to do,” Calvert said. 

Calvert and Parker used TikTok dance moves and dances from past years that were familiar to students, adding a bit of Warriorthon history to the dance. 

“To know I’ve made the Warriorthon dance and hope they’ll carry at least some of the dances into next year, I’m really excited,” Calvert said. “This is my favorite event of the whole year.”