Miracle, Tech’s largest student-led philanthropic organization, is entering its 18th year of supporting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), and it’s just getting started. The organization is looking to continue growing on the heels of a particularly strong 2025 as it plans to kick off the year with its upcoming Child Health Day on Oct. 27 at Tech Green.
Since 2007, Miracle @ GT has been one of hundreds of associated chapters that support Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Hospitals across the U.S. and Canada through its fundraising for CMN member CHOA, specifically CHOA’s Heart Center and its summer camp for patients, Camp Braveheart. CHOA’s status as a not-for-profit organization and Camp Braveheart’s cost-free experiences for patients make both deeply reliant on donors and fundraising efforts. Miracle has aided both a great deal; last year alone, the organization raised over $107,000.
Miracle typically organizes a wide variety of fundraisers throughout the year, including merchandise sales, restaurant proceeds nights, bake sales and on-campus events like Child Health Day and Battle of the Bands. The crowning fundraiser, though, and subject of year-round anticipation is the Dance Marathon: a day-long celebration of CHOA’s patients and families with games, raffles, stories from Miracle kids, plenty of dancing and a grand reveal of Miracle’s fundraising total for the year.
Ellie Kate Watson, fourth-year NEUR, is Miracle’s executive director, and with four years of experience in the organization, she knows firsthand how hard work and collaboration can come to fruition.
“Seeing people come together with a shared passion is such an intangible feeling. It’s so inspiring to see an event come through, come together from beginning to end, all because people have this incredible passion and drive for service and contributing to something bigger than themselves,” Watson said.
Though the Dance Marathon is traditionally held in the spring, anyone interested in the fundraiser won’t have to wait until then to get a feel for what the experience is like, as Watson describes Child Health Day in October as a sort of “mini-Dance Marathon.”
“Instead of being a full day up there, it’s only at night from 6-9, and it’s right here on Tech Green. So if you’re walking by, definitely stop by, and we have Miracle kids come, we have performances. It’s like a dance marathon, but condensed into a few hours, and it’s a lot of fun,” Watson said.
Miracle operations cover a great deal of ground throughout the year, necessitating 13 different internal committees that collaborate to bring events to life, communicate with sponsors, Miracle families and CHOA and connect Tech students and even local high schools with Miracle. According to Watson, Miracle members can join a committee in the fall; while not required, committee membership allows for more specialized and extended involvement with a branch of operations.
For example, the co-directors of the Families and Hospital Relations Committee, Beza Soresa, third-year BIOL, and Aria Smith, third-year NEUR, can observe firsthand the impact of Miracle’s work on Miracle kids and families.
“We really want Miracle to feel like a second home for the families we work with, a place where they feel celebrated and supported all year long — not just during Dance Marathon. That means building stronger relationships with our Miracle families, creating more opportunities for them to be involved and making sure their voices are at the heart of what we do,” Soresa and Smith said in a statement to the Technique.
While Miracle holds many fundraisers on campus, Miracle members frequently visit CHOA to connect with patients and their families in outings called patient parties. In the Arthur M. Blank Hospital, an area called The Zone hosts festivities, crafts and games for Miracle kids and volunteers to enjoy.
“It’s very impactful. It’s a connection to, ‘Oh, this is why I’m doing this. It’s to contribute to stuff like this,’” Watson said.
As Miracle @ GT has prepared for a busy year ahead, Watson and other leaders have drawn inspiration from attending a nationwide Dance Marathon leadership conference called Ignite.
“It was so great to see people, very passionate people high up in these organizations, come together for a common goal of supporting children’s health,” Watson said. “It was really great to hear from other programs about things that they were doing and things that they were doing well. And I think it inspired me and inspired a lot of our team to keep pushing and keep building up Miracle as an amazing organization.”
Such growth is a mission for Miracle @ GT this year across multiple areas of the organization.
“One of our biggest goals this year is to keep growing [Miracle @ GT], not just in size but also in impact,” said Soresa and Smith. “At the same time, we hope to strengthen our own [Miracle @ GT] community by engaging new members, raising more awareness on campus and pushing our fundraising efforts even further so we can continue making a real difference for the kids at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.”
Miracle @ GT is also always open to new members and is making particular efforts this year to expand membership, as many current Miracle members are involved through Greek life connections.
“We’re looking to diversify our population of members and branch out from just Greek life. And we’ve established a few new positions to help with that,” Watson said.
For anyone interested in joining Miracle, Watson suggests consulting the organization’s Linktree, accessible on Miracle’s Instagram, where the membership application, a link to register on the fundraising platform DonorDrive and a form for sending feedback to leadership can be found.
“I would say that the kids, they want to meet you, they want to feel like they’re, for lack of a better term, they want to feel like they’re a normal kid,” Watson said when asked if she had advice for current and prospective members. “Being able to create that environment for them is something that will be so impactful for them and that they cherish for years and years to come. And knowing that you’re a part of that feels so good. So just open yourself up to experiences like that.”