WKU will soon get a chance to dance for Big Red.

Though the fundraiser Dance Big Red is scheduled for next February, preparations for the event are already underway.  

Bardstown sophomore Megan Wimpsett, a member of Dance Big Red’s executive board, said the event will be a fundraiser for Kosair Children’s Hospital.

“This week we’re having a preview event in Preston to get people to register,” she said.  

The preview, she said, will be in the Preston Center from 5 to 8 p.m. The actual dance won’t be hosted until Feb. 20 of 2015. 

“We’re just going to have some tables set up to where people can register online,” Wimpsett said. “That’s just like getting their commitment that they’re going to come next year and they’re pledging to raise money.”

Bardstown sophomore Kelli Robinson, coordinator for Dance Big Red, said the preview will be an opportunity for people to learn about the main event next year.

“Since this is a fairly new event, we want to introduce it to people so they can get an idea and start planning how they will raise money for next year,” she said.

Robinson said families from Kosair and WKU’s dance team may appear at the preview, but their attendance is still uncertain.

“We know for sure that we will have a Kosair representative here that will be…spreading the word about Kosair,” Robinson said. 

Other universities have held this event before, but it is new to WKU.

“The one that marked our interest was Dance Blue at Kentucky at the University of Kentucky,” Robinson said, “That’s where my two siblings go to school so I’ve seen a little bit of that in action and I was just wondering why we didn’t have one here and then so that’s how I got started with it.”

She said Dance Big Red will be, in part, a celebration of the money raised. 

“We’re encouraging teams to fundraise for this event throughout the year,” Robinson said, “so that we can get our maximum amount of funds to go towards Kosair Children’s Hospital.”

There will be awards at Dance Big Red for the teams that have gained the most points, which can be earned by raising money, writing letters to raise funds, and appearing at various “pre-events” such as the Hilltopper 100 this fall.

Robinson also said there will be awards for the top-scoring fraternity and sorority participating in Dance Big Red, adding that the teams don’t have to be Greek-affiliated.

“There is going to be a big Greek following hopefully, but we don’t want to discourage anybody that’s not Greek,” Robinson said.

She said Dance Big Red will also have individual awards for the individual with the most points and team awards for the highest-scoring team. 

Robinson said Dance Big Red will be an all-night event.

“It will start at 8 p.m. and goes to 8 a.m.,” she said, “There will be different games set up and inflatables, and hopefully we’ll get some bands to come play and we are going to just hang out all night.”

There will be no sitting allowed at the event. 

“I think we’re going to put a fee on it (sitting) like a dollar for ten minutes to sit down,” Robinson said. Money raised in this way will also go to Kosair Children’s Hospital.