LOUISVILLE, Ky - For 18 hours, University of Louisville students packed themselves into a campus ballroom to raise money for pediatric cancer care.

This year's installment of the RaiseRED dance marathon began Friday evening, with music and games carrying well into Saturday morning.

For the last three years, Patrick McSweeney could be found in the middle of the fray. The junior, himself a seven-time cancer survivor, continues his own fight while, himself, raising nearly $50,000 for local child oncology and hematology research.

Each RaiseRED ends with a dramatic reveal — on digit at a time — of the total dollar amount raised that year."

"Seeing the numbers go up and seeing the whole student body and community react… is something that continues to excite me and entertain me," McSweeney said as he and the rest of the board prepared earlier in the week. "and [it] is what inspires me to keep wanting to do more."

The goal each year, McSweeney told us, is to outraise the previous year. On Saturday, volunteers held up giant poster boards displaying "$690,921.70," beating out 2019's total of more than $682,000.