PHOTOS: UCLA Hosts Dance-A-Thon To Fight Pediatric HIV/AIDS

UCLA hosted its tenth annual Dance Marathon Benefit over the weekend, raising $410,530.68 in the fight against global pediatric HIV/AIDS. The proceeds from the event benefited the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, One Heartland, Project Kindle, and The UCLA AIDS Institute.

Attendees participated in a 26-hour dance-a-thon from 11am on Saturday, February 19 to 1 pm on Sunday, February 20 to help raise awareness for and erase the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.

The Dance Marathon was organized by the university's student-run Pediatric AIDS Coalition and
is considered the largest student-organized philanthropic event on the West Coast. Over 2,000 students came together with activists, community members, and celebrities like Modern Family's Rico Rodriguez and The Office's Kate Flannery.

The event included costumes, hours of dancing, and inspiring stories from people and families affected by HIV/AIDS. One such speaker was Elizabeth Glaser's son, Jake Glaser, who addressed attendees. "Being the first of anything is never easy, but at the same time, it's often the most important," Glaser told the dancers, remarking that UCLA's event and its participants, "showed the rest of the colleges and universities out there what is possible."

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Click here to find out more about the UCLA Dance Marathon and its beneficiaries, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, One Heartland, Project Kindle, and the UCLA AIDS Institute.

Photos courtesy of UCLA Pediatric AIDS Coalition.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.