By Madison Weber ’23, Staff Writer
The Teddi dance has held a certain significance in the heart of the Fisher family for decades now. The annual dance and fundraiser held on Fisher campus to raise funds for Camp Good Times and Special Days, has long been one of the largest student run clubs on campus, and its popularity has only soared since the first Teddi in 1981. Current chair, Emily Trotman, estimates that over 365 students are currently in Teddi, and holds several mini fundraisers leading up to the big dance in February. The fundraising goal for this year may seem steep at $115,000, but given that last year they made $111,267.21 not impossible. However this year, Teddi is being forced to adapt to the guidelines laid out by Fisher, the New York State, and even the federal government due to changes from the coronavirus pandemic.
Teddi, known as Camp Good Days, works to ensure that children with cancer have a place to go every summer where they can be kids and just kids. On the shores of Keuka lake they do water-sports, crafts, sing songs, and are surrounded by peers going through the exact same thing as them. The dance’s namesake, Elizabeth “Teddi” Mervis, was the child of Gary Mervis, former Fisher football coach, who was nine when diagnosed with a brain tumor. Gary Mervis went on to form Camp Good Days so Teddi would have a place where she could have fun and be with the only people that could truly understand her; other children fighting the same battle. A principle that student Kyle Link Kyle Link, Fisher class of ‘21 echoed,; “I know what it’s like to not have a childhood.”
Link was diagnosed with cancer 17 years ago and was actually a camper at Camp Good Days. Link is now a marketing captain for Teddi- and uses his experiences to truly get in the mindset of what Teddi is really about. “I felt normal for two weeks” he says when remembering his two summers at Teddi. Because of all of the changes, Trotman has made the motto for this year’s planning committee “do all that you can with the place that you are in, in that time that you’re given”. When asked what the dance will look like this year, Trotman smiles confidently before saying “it’s so unknown” but admits they are forming two separate plans for two scenarios. Since they have no idea what life and school will look like in February, or if students will even be back to school at that time, they are preparing for both an in person and virtual event. No matter what it looks like, Trotman promises Teddi will happen and it will be for 24 hours.
Teddi has already made many changes — meetings are held via Zoom and they have had to get creative in raising money, and spreading the word, from tik tok challenges, to instagram bingo boards, to reimaging the Teddi Trot. The 5k on campus is usually open to the public, but this year it is a two week challenge to track your runs and try to get sponsored— either a one time donation or donating per mile. This method actually proved to be more lucrative as they had over 80 runners participate when there is typically around 30. It brought the giving page to over $15,000 which is, according to Trotman, substantially higher than usual for that event. For this reason.
As of now, the current date of Teddi will be February 19th through the 20th of 2021, and those interested in donating or fundraising can follow the link at the bottom of the article. Anybody can do either of those, regardless of whether or not they are officially in the club. At the close of every Teddi meeting, all members join in saying “Let’s make this the best one yet”, and they have full intention on doing that this year as well.
