The Eating Awareness Student Subcommittee partied in the East Gym on Friday to raise money during the second Exercise-a-Thon event in honor of Binghamton University student Zach Young, who survived cardiac arrest over winter break.

Young and his parents decided that the $472 raised at the event should go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities, whose goal is to improve the health and well-being of children.

Young chose the Ronald McDonald House Charities because of the help it provided him and his family during his hospitalization.

“The Ronald McDonald House saved us a lot of hassle, and we thought this was the best way to give back to them,” Young said.

Exercise-a-Thon will drive a different mission each semester, according to Francesca Hraska, president of the EASS and a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience. Last semester, Exercise-a-Thon focused on aiding with the flood relief.

“I think each semester [the EASS] will donate to a different foundation that Binghamton University students can easily relate to,” Hraska said.

The bi-annual event featured a variety of party-themed exercise classes, including Blacklight Zumba, Xtremely Fit and Kick It Up. The classes incorporated blacklights and strobe lights to spice up the routines.

The event also featured a raffle with a Kent Takara Sugiyama Flat Bar Fixie Bike as the grand prize. Sodexo catered the event, providing healthy snacks such as black bean brownies and peanut-cranberry energy bars to participants.

Students paid $1 for a single class or $3 to attend all of them, and no gym membership was required.

Samantha Nobel, an intern for Binghamton’s Health and Wellness Studies Department and a sophomore majoring in English, was involved in the planning and organization of the event.

“For this event, I’ve helped plan everything from creating flyers to developing creative fundraising and promotions for the event, like the bike raffle,” Nobel said.

Brittany Kalmanowitz, a FitSpace instructor and a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, worked with the EASS to help run the event.

“I contacted the Eating Awareness Committee and [we] bounced ideas off each other to come up with a dance party theme for charity to create awareness about fitness and health,” Kalmanowitz said.

Kalmanowitz also pushed for involving Young in the event.

“I know Zach is an extremely strong person and can get through just about anything,” Kalmanowitz said. “I am friendly with his brothers in Tau Epsilon Phi and they were a great support system for him. I thought it would be a great idea to have the proceeds go to a charity that would be meaningful to him and his family for such an astonishing recovery.”