Pack the floor for 24.

Give a night, save a life.

Flyers have been posted; sidewalks have been chalked – the time has come.

Dance Marathon, a 24-hour fund-raising event benefiting the N.C. Children’s Hospital, will begin Friday at 7 p.m.

“This Marathon has the potential to be the best one yet,” Jess Roberts, fund raising co-chair and senior in biological engineering, said.

Interested students can join before or during the marathon as dancers or moralers by signing up via Dance Marathon’s Web site (http://www.ncsu.edu/stud_orgs/dance_marathon/) or at the event.

“We are asking that each dancer at least raise $40, but that can be done in the Brickyard in a matter of minutes,” Roberts said.

Twenty-four hours seems like a long time, but according to Diana Coyle, operations chair and junior in communication, plenty of fun activities are planned to keep everybody awake and having a great time.

“We’re getting a bouncy jousting game for Saturday morning, so that’s definitely something different,” Coyle said.

This is Coyle’s third Marathon, and she said she has enjoyed this one the most because she has coordinated all of the events to take place during it.

“I’m really excited about it, even though I’ll probably be going crazy,” Coyle said.

Roberts said she is looking forward to the time slot when patients and families from the Children’s Hospital come to visit.

“I am most excited to see the faces of the kids and parents on Saturday afternoon,” Roberts said. “The thought that we can make a difference in these kids’ lives is an amazing concept.”

As a daughter of a cancer survivor, Roberts said she has spent her “fair share of time in waiting rooms and eating hospital food” while her father was sick.

“This is just a chance for me to give something back,” Roberts said.