Penn State's IFC/Panhellenic Dance MaraTHON raises 7.8 million dollars!

[psusue]

Penn State's dance marathon (lovingly abbreviated to THON) concluded today, with a total of 7.8 million dollars being raised in total.

Top fundraisers this year (as usual) were Alpha Tau Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha, raising over $300,000. Second this year were Alpha Sigma Alpha and Lambda Chi Alpha, and third were Alpha Chi Omega and Pi Kappa Phi. The total amount of money raised by all of the organizations was $7,838,054.36, surpassing last year's total of $7,490,133.87, despite the economic recession.

THON is a year-long fundraising effort that benefits the Four Diamonds Fund, an organization that funds research and support for children with cancer. Specifically what the Four Diamonds Fund does is provide mental, physical, emotional, and financial support for both the children with cancer as well as their families, and they have a dedicated team of pediatric oncologists as well as nutritionists, play therapists, and social workers to help each child and their family cope in this extremely difficult situation.

THON culminates in a 46 hour no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon, which is a symbolic "stand" with these children through their fight with cancer. To paraphrase what is said by many dancers; "What we go through during these 46 hours is nothing. At the end of this, we get to go home, sleep this off, and feel better in a few days. What the families go through, that is the nightmare".

What I love most about THON is the true sense of community, solidarity, and empathy that most all of the students either have or learn while at THON. The feeling inside of the building cannot be described accurately- one must be there to truly feel and understand it. THON brings together Greeks, independents, people from all of the country and all over the world with one goal-- to end pediatric cancer. The rallying cry of all the dancers, committee members, and supporters is this "One day we will dance in celebration. Until then we will dance for a cure."

For an idea of what the atmosphere of what it is like during THON, as well for more information about what THON is and what it does, visit this link. Also to see more of the heart of THON, this video is really powerful.

[RaggedyAnn]

Thanks for the update!

[twinkle555]

Wooooww-eeee..that blows my mind!!! I love it!

[LionTamer]

That's JUST THIS YEAR. 7.8 million - exceeds any other college-student-run charity in the world by a ridiculous amount.

What's sad is that the "#1 party school" got coverage everywhere, and yet "#1 philanthropy" and "almost 8 million dollars in one year" only really gets covered in Pittsburgh - a lot of year the Philly papers don't even bother, or bury it somewhere, and the rest of the country -- you won't hear a peep.

Another thing to point out is that the money is first earmarked to ensure that kids with cancer at Hershey Medical Center don't end up bankrupting their families, which is especially important now, with vile insurance companies and a screwed up health care system. After that, the Marathon pays for satellite clinics in far-flung towns like State College, so families whose kids have cancer don't have to drive 2 hours for chemo, and then part of it goes to building a whole new pediatric cancer wing at the Hershey Medical Center.

The young people who started this were smart, narrowing their beneficiaries down to one (from several) and choosing a good cause that everyone in the state is happy to support.

[als463]

One thing that rocks this year is that celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Lindsey Lohan both Tweeted about it on Twitter!

Apparently, some kid in IFC said he would put a dollar toward THON for every person who followed him on Twitter. He said he believed he would get (at most) only 50 followers. Nope! Kholoe Kardashian got a hold of that info and started tweeting. By the time it got around to this kid, he owed THON around $1,600. or more (not sure at this point). Even the Collegian did an article about it!

I LOVE THON!!!

FTK

[blueGBI]

Originally Posted by als463

One thing that rocks this year is that celebrities like Khloe Kardashian and Lindsey Lohan both Tweeted about it on Twitter!

Apparently, some kid in IFC said he would put a dollar toward THON for every person who followed him on Twitter. He said he believed he would get (at most) only 50 followers. Nope! Kholoe Kardashian got a hold of that info and started tweeting. By the time it got around to this kid, he owed THON around $1,600. or more (not sure at this point). Even the Collegian did an article about it!

I LOVE THON!!!

FTK

He owes like 1,763 bucks. They are still trying to figure out how he's going to pay for it.

FTK!!

[psusue]

Originally Posted by blueGBI

He owes like 1,763 bucks. They are still trying to figure out how he's going to pay for it.

FTK!!

Actually I heard that the IFC was going to step up and pay for it. At least that's what the Collegian said. Yay Greeks!

[LionTamer]

On a slightly different topic: How do you think a chapter's involvement in 'thon is viewed by nationals, most of which would probably prefer that we be raising money for the national's desginated philanthropy?

I'm guessing they have mixed feelings. On one hand, it gets positive publicity on campus for the chapter, but on the other hand, I'm sure they would rather the chapter be focused on the National's priorities, rather than pouring the HUGE amount of time, effort and fund-raising toward 'thon.

[als463]

Originally Posted by LionTamer

On a slightly different topic: How do you think a chapter's involvement in 'thon is viewed by nationals, most of which would probably prefer that we be raising money for the national's desginated philanthropy?

I'm guessing they have mixed feelings. On one hand, it gets positive publicity on campus for the chapter, but on the other hand, I'm sure they would rather the chapter be focused on the National's priorities, rather than pouring the HUGE amount of time, effort and fund-raising toward 'thon.

Well, I know for Phi Mu this is almost seen as a "double-dip" because THON supports Hershey Medical Center which is a Children's Miracle Network affiliate. Because of this, the Penn State (Beta Mu) chapter of Phi Mu is the highest all-time money raiser of all Phi Mu chapters for CMN. This is just another reason I am proud of my chapter!

I see what you are saying, though. A good way to look at it, from a perspective where your GLO may not receive any actual benefits from THON is that this makes the Greek community look incredible! I don't care if you are a Phi Mu or an ASA, ADPi, Theta, whatever-this makes us all look great! I love telling my friends in various GLOs about the fact that they should support their hard-working brothers/ sisters because THON is around the corner!

We Are...Penn State!

[ta kala]

Originally Posted by LionTamer

On a slightly different topic: How do you think a chapter's involvement in 'thon is viewed by nationals, most of which would probably prefer that we be raising money for the national's desginated philanthropy?

I'm guessing they have mixed feelings. On one hand, it gets positive publicity on campus for the chapter, but on the other hand, I'm sure they would rather the chapter be focused on the National's priorities, rather than pouring the HUGE amount of time, effort and fund-raising toward 'thon.

It's frustrating. Although we understand the importance of THON, it's also important for a chapter to see value in our organization's philanthropies. For example, if I remember correctly, at one point if our KD chapter had given the amount they raised for THON to Prevent Child Abuse America, they would have been our organization's leader in fund raising. Instead, they were not even in the top 10 of pairs for THON. Trying to explain that to the women though is pointless.

[kddani]

Congrats to the PSU Greeks (and other organizations- this event has the participation of way more than just the greeks) for raising so much money. They're really done a great job with THON over the years.


Though I have to say that I am quite happy that I will now at least have several months' break from being harassed literally everywhere in the Pittsburgh area for money by students canning. Outside Walmart, in the intersection I go through everyday, even outside a PITT basketball game. It is too much- being hit up everywhere I turn.

[nittanygirl]

yayyy psu!!! being on a committee I was there for at least 36 hours this past weekend and let me tell you what, through the pain on your feet it is all 100% worth all of the efforts once they raise that total.
yayyy for the dancers! i am so proud of them! i don't know how they do it

WE ARE!!!!!!!

[als463]

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

yayyy psu!!! being on a committee I was there for at least 36 hours this past weekend and let me tell you what, through the pain on your feet it is all 100% worth all of the efforts once they raise that total.
yayyy for the dancers! i am so proud of them! i don't know how they do it

WE ARE!!!!!!!

Hey nittanygirl, you're back! Maybe I missed it (so if I did, I'm sorry), but did you ever tell us if you went through recruitment and ever joined an NPC???

[PeppyGPhiB]

I wish that more of the large greek systems would do this type of thing, and rotate/divide the earnings between a couple of philanthropies each year. In my opinion it's ridiculous for chapters to burn out on spending so much time on every.single.group's.obstacle course/volleyball tournament/pageant/walk/pancake breakfast. When every chapter does its own event, and every chapter must participate in all of the others, it equals a lot of work for a usually small benefit. Imagine if every greek system worked together to make a major contribution to a few orgs. every year - I know on my campus the donation we would end up making to our foundation would be far greater if we went this route rather than trying to organize and market our own event every year.

[psusue]

ta kala- I completely understand where you're coming from on this, believe me it's crossed more than a few people's minds what we can be doing with this money for our own philanthropies. However because it's such a tradition at our school (at a school built on strong traditions) I don't think anything would take off as much as THON has, even if we tried. It's hard to hear, but nothing is really comparable to THON in terms of anything I've experienced, especially in terms of philanthropies.

kddani- I personally apologize for this, and again it has been said that "canning" or the process of standing on street corners/in front of stores to solicit money into cans, is going to die within a few years. Why? Because we have farmed out too much of Pennsylvania, and I don't know how much more it can grow in the next 5-10 years. And also outside of the state there are the problems of people not knowing what THON is or that they don't really like Penn State (hard for me to think of, but it's true). I know I feel bad every time we go to Pittsburgh because almost everyone we talk to is like "wow you guys are everywhere" or "I already gave three times already" (after which we of course thank them for their generosity). Of course most people don't understand that there are 5-8 student groups in the area and that no, we don't all know each other either. =) Also if you want to avoid those weekends (or at least be prepared for them), they are all posted on www.thon.org in October, so you can get ready for the onslaught.

Peppy GPhiB- Actually we all do our individual philanthropies in addition to doing THON. So we actually do all the different activities you listed (for example we've always done a dodgeball tournament to raise money for the Sigma Sigma Sigma Foundation). So we haven't really shook much up in terms of that, we just do that in addition to all the time with THON.