THON

Just as Penn Staters came together in late January to say good-bye to Joe Paterno, they will soon come together again to support a cause that was important to him.  They will come together--15,000 volunteers, 700 dancers, and countless others cheering in the stands--with the hopes of saying good-bye to childhood cancer.  It's one of the things that makes me most proud to be an alumna of this university.

The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, more commonly known as THON, is a year-long student-run effort to fight pediatric cancer.  Monies raised go to support the Four Diamonds Fund at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

For those unfamiliar with THON, the capstone event is a 46-hour 'dance' (and I use this term lightly, as it's really anything BUT a dance) taking place on the University Park campus next weekend.  The students raise funds throughout the year, from a 5K race on campus that draws thousands of participants to canning weekends, to door-to-door solicitations throughout this community.  Thousands work tirelessly to market the event, secure corporate sponsorship and donations, coordinate facilities, and support the dancers during THON weekend.  

Though it wasn't really the case when I was an undergraduate here, THON is truly a part of the Penn State experience.  Roughly one in three students has some type of involvement with the event.

"When they say 'We are Penn State', this is what they are talking about." - Joe Paterno at THON

THON has become the largest student-run philanthropy in the country and it's something that all Penn Staters can be proud of.   Especially at a time where everyone is pointing their fingers at Penn State, constantly rehashing the Sandusky scandal.  Over time, the world will see that it's not something like the horrific revelations of last fall that define this university, but it's students selflessly and tirelessly working for a common and most worthwhile cause, working for children and families they've never met.  Doing it For The Kids.
 
I recently saw a statistic that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will die.  One in five.  When you think about the mortality rate of adult cancers, one in five does not sound bad.  There are many cancers for which that sort of mortality rate would be considered a great success.  But even one child is one too many.  It's why Penn Staters come together each year to work toward a cure.

As an undergraduate, I was a member of the Student Nurses Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP).  We learned in the fall of 1992 that our organization would get four spots for dancers in the February 1993 THON event.  All we needed to do was raise $480 per couple.  That's just $10 for each hour we'd be on our feet (the event used to be a 48-hour one).   I assumed my classmates would jump at the opportunity, if for no other reason than the fact that we had done our pediatric clinical rotation in Hershey.  We saw these kids, cared for them, watched them in their fight with cancer.  It took on a more personal meaning.

While it took a little begging and pleading, I managed to recruit three others to dance with me and the four of us became the first representatives of the student nursing group at THON.

It was a long, sometimes difficult weekend.  The exhaustion of standing on your feet for 48 hours is so much greater than anything I have ever experienced, including having two babies in a 15-month span of time.  It's one of my best Penn State experiences and I have many great memories.

Here are just a few:

The night before... the Tavern Restaurant opened its doors to all THON dancers with an all-you-can eat pasta night at a really great price.  I remember sitting with the other three SNAP dancers talking about all the gory things we'd seen as nursing students.  One friend was talking about packing a wound as another wound her fettuccine alfredo around her fork.  Without missing a beat, she holds out her fork, covered in that thick, white sauce and says "but was it pussy?"  

Location, location, location... THON certainly wasn't the big deal it is now 20 years ago.  It was held in a gym in White Building, there were small bleachers which were often packed (especially at 2:00am when the bars closed down), but nothing like the 15,000 who fill the stands of Bryce Jordan Center these days.  We made our own banners to be hung on the wall (and we did this while sitting at the Shandygaff on a SLOW Tuesday night while our pal Scott played some great 80s music).  Our drunk friends came in to visit each night after the bars closed.  Dancers were separated from spectators by that flimsy plastic you see on the side of the road in winter time.  As THON grew, it's location changed twice.  And while I think the environment of BJC and the enthusiasm of all the students cheering from their seats is fantastic, nothing can top the intimate feel of White Building for me!

Powder slides... there were regularly scheduled bathroom breaks during THON weekend.  They'd call us by our dancer numbers, we'd stand in line, do our business and then we'd head back out to the gym floor by running across the floor, sliding onto our bellies, and lining up in a row.  Volunteers would massage all the achy parts we had before we were back on our feet again.  Believe me when I say toward the end, you ached EVERYWHERE and couldn't care less who was touching you or where.

Line dance... I think the song was Move Every Mountain... something that we were taught movements to in the first couple of hours of THON; it was cued up hourly for the remainder of the weekend and gave us a much needed burst of energy.  In all honesty, I like the way the dance is done now much better.  A group comes together and writes a 'song' about everything that happened in the world over the past year, continually brings it back to the idea that they are doing it "FTK" or "For the kids", and then adds movements.  If you search on Youtube for THON line dances, you can see years past. 

Family hour... this is traditionally the last hour of THON and it's the hour when Four Diamonds' families come on stage and share their stories.  Many are about kids currently in treatment, about what THON means to them.  Some do not end in happily ever after.  But every story is beautiful in its own way.  They tell stories of hope and gratitude and sometimes heartbreak.  I cried through all of them.  But hearing them made me feel so good about what I had just done for them.

The final tally... the most anticipated moment of any THON is the moment they share the total amount raised.  It's the very last thing they do.  One by one they flip over cards showing the dollar amount. $1,336,173.59... only the second time THON raised more than $1 million and it was a record that stood for four years.  They raised more than seven times that amount last year. 

Going home... when it was all said and done, I'd been awake for roughly 55 straight hours.  My first stop when I got back to my apartment was the shower.  Only I was too tired to stand, so I sat.  And fell asleep there.  My roommate made me something to eat and then I crashed.  I'd made the mistake of scheduling an all-day nursing conference at 8:00 the next morning.  While I managed to get out to the hospital and sit in the lecture room, I nodded off on several times and even apologized to the speaker during a break.  Luckily for me, she totally understood.

In 1999, THON moved to Rec Hall and in 2007, the 35th anniversary of THON, it moved to its current home at the Bryce Jordan Center.  They've added nearly 200 dancers since the year I danced.  And they've quite simply become a fundraising machine.  Last year's amount, $9,563,016.09, broke the previous record by roughly $1.5 million and there's every reason to expect that this is the year the event could surpass $10 million.  Because the students volunteer their time and talents and solicit donations from local and national businesses, virtually every penny they raise goes directly to the Four Diamonds Fund.

In turn, the fund provides financial assistance to families with a child undergoing treatment for cancer, covering expenses that insurance does not.  The fund also supports much needed research to find a cure through the Four Diamonds Pediatric Cancer Research Institute.

For this year's dancers, I would say this... really listen to the families when they talk and pay attention to them as they move around the floor throughout the weekend.  They are a great reminder of why you are there and they'll inspire you and give you the strength to continue when you can't imagine how you can possibly stay on your feet another minute.

Wear your most comfortable pair of shoes and change your socks.  Often.

And stay in bed Monday morning.  Catch up on your sleep.  There's no doubt you will have earned it!