Dust off those dancing shoes and get ready for a night of Zumba madness.

The Recreation and Sports Programming class, PE495 is hosting a Zumbathon for everyone in the community as a class project.

Zumba is a Latin-influenced, new-age dance exercise appropriate for any age. The event will start at 7 p.m. Monday, April 19 in the Recreation Center at the PEIF.

The entry fee is one non-perishable food item, which will be donated to St. Vincent DePaul’s food bank.

Carly Moore, a student Zumba instructor at the PEIF has been certified in Zumba for almost two years, will be volunteering her time for the Zumbathon.

“I couldn’t run because I have bad knees,” Moore said. “Zumba seemed to be a way for me to stay active.”

Moore said Zumba is great for all ages and for anyone who wants to try something new.

This will be the first Zumbathon in Marquette County. The three-hour marathon event will have four certified Zumba instructors leading the Zumbathon. Two of the instructors are from NMU and the others are from Bell Hospital and the Blue Lounge.

“We decided that Zumba would have the most potential impact on students, faculty and staff,” said Brian Gaudreau, another Zumba instructor who has been helping the students with this project.

Gaudreau said this is a very interactive and group oriented project where the students in class have to work together to assemble all the different pieces of a sports program.

“The purpose of the class is to put together a product then see it through from start to finish,” Gaudreau said.

The class has split up into five different planning groups to get the event up and running. The five groups are facilities, promotions, donations, concessions, and budget.

White’s Grocery in Escanaba is donating sports drinks to the event. The donations group is working to get other grocery stores to help out with the Zumbathon.

PE495 is aiming for an attendance of roughly 200 people for the Zumbathon.

“I’m excited,” Gaudreau said. “I hope we get 300 people there.”

For more information, email Brian Gaudreau at [email protected].