8A - Monday, March 28, 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

DMUM
From Page 1A
featured performances by stu-
dent groups such as the Michigan
Marching Band and Ann Arbor
band, Ella Riot.
LSA senior Eric Elgin, execu-
tive director of Dance Marathon,
said the program helps establish
meaningful relationships between
members of the University and the
greater community.
"It's an opportunity to get to
know a lot of people and at the
same time be paired with a family
you didn't know before and learn-
ing about a specific child and their
condition," Elgin said.
For the Lickman family, whose
5-year-old daughter Emily has
been diagnosed with cerebral
palsy, Dance Marathon has played
an important role in assisting her
physical therapy and rehabilita-
tion.
Emily's father, Phil Lickman,
said a Dance Marathon team visits
and works with Emily at therapy
every week. In November, Emily
underwent a selective dorsal
rhizotomy - a neurological pro-
cedure - at the Children's and
Women's Hospital and wasn't able
to attend a Dance Marathon bond-
ing event, but he said that didn't
stop University students from
bringing the event to her instead.
"Her team came and visited her
in the hospital - she missed the
pajama party - (but) had it with
her in her hospital bed," Lickman
said.
Lickman said he is in awe of
the encouragement and support
his family has received from the
Dance Marathon program.
"Her team has just been amaz-
ingly supportive of her, and it's
been a great experience for every-
body and the entire family," he
said.
Lickman said in order to keep
their Dance Marathon team going
into the wee hours of the night,
the family brings them a midnight
treat - a tradition they started last
year and hope to maintain.

Engineering Prof. John Lee speaks on the panel at a town hall meeting on nuclear energy in the MLB on March 26.

JAPAN
From Page1A
National Laboratory, participat-
ed in the symposium that was
moderated by James Holloway,
College of Engineering associate
dean for undergraduate educa-
tion.
The audience, which was
mostly comprised of University
students, listened as the profes-
sors discussed the comparisons
between the accident at the
Japanese power plant Fukushi-
ma Dai-ichi and a similar 1979
incident at Three Mile Island,
where a nuclear power plant in
Dauphin County, Penn. partially
melted down.
Kearfott - an expert on safe-
ty precautions in nuclear energy
and nuclear power plants - told
the audience that the crises at
Three Mile Island and Fuku-
shima Dai-ichi bear several

similarities, but also vast differ-
ences.
According to Kearfott, the
accident at Three Mile island led
to the implementation of drug
testing for employees and the
introduction of a better system
of communication among nucle-
ar power plants worldwide.
While the incident led to posi-
tive changes in the regulation
of nuclear power plants, Kear-
fott added she wanted to refrain
from a "post-analysis" of the
crisis in Japan since speculation
maybe premature.
However, Kearfott hypoth-
esized that as a result of the inci-
dent at Fukushima Dai-ichi, a
better system of analyzing cool-
ant pools and establishing back-
up coolant systems will most
likely be enacted. She noted
that coolant systems were a core
cause of the nuclear disaster in
Japan - a problem that should
be corrected out of concern for

the health of the people in and
around the plant.
The 9.0 magnitude quake and
tsunami hit Japan on March 11
and devastated the northern
part of the country. The official
death total has risen to 10,100
and more than 17,000 other peo-
ple are still missing.
Engineering senior Ryan Pen-
ney - who is studying nuclear
engineering and radiological
sciences and was the principal
organizer of the event - said in
an interview after the panel dis-
cussion that the purpose of the
event was to educate the public
about the crisis and its subse-
quent effects on the power plant
and individuals who live near it.
Penney said there has been
"too much speculation and pos-
sible misinformation by the
media" about the crisis, add-
ing that the event's purpose
was to provide a more scientific
approach to the recent events.

HALEY HOARD/Daily
Engineering freshman Aarti Narayanan massages LSA sophomore Charlotte Ber-
schback after 27-straight hours of dancing yesterday.
"We'll bring our team Slurpees therapy through dancing - has
at midnight to keep them fired up been a very moving for her.
for the night," Lickman said. "It gives me the chills just
LSA sophomore Rohan Dharan, thinking about it because I get to
who was a dance captain this year, go and help these kids do what I
said he feels that creating a spe- want to do for the rest of my life,"
cial bond with a family is the most Wanserski said.
enlightening part about Dance The dancers utilized different
Marathon. strategies in order to stay alert for
"We've had such a good fam- the full 30 hours. LSA freshman
ily experience this year," Dharan Samantha Fischer said using ten-
said. "They've come to all of our nis balls to roll over her feet was
events. It's awesome getting to a good tactic, as well as engaging
know their issues, but also getting in multiple activities to keep her
to know them as people." mind off of the pain of being on
Music, Theatre & Dance senior your feet for so long.
Emily Wanserski, Dance Mara- The final hour of Dance Mara-
thon community outreach chair, thon was an emotional experi-
said she was inspired to get ence for many dancers, families
involved with the event not only and members of the commu-
because of her love for dancing, nity that came to support the
but also due to her ownexperience cause. In the closing ceremony,
with physical therapy after break- Elgin spoke about the dancers'
ing her ankle in high school. achievements.
"I had to go through a lot of "Other people might have spent
physical therapy before I could this weekend deciding to do other
walk again, much less dance things, deciding they had better
again," she said. things to do," Elgin said. "I don't
Wanserski added that working think there is a more remarkable
with children at Kids In Motion group of students on this cam-
- a pediatric program at the pus or in this entire country. I'm
Children's and Women's Hospital so proud of each and every one of
that provides physical and mental you."

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