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

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.

Thanks for the update!

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

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.

For The Kids-FTK
 

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!!

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!

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.

THON = CMN money
 

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!

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.

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.

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???

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.

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.

I don't think it's the chapter that doesn't see value in it - it's the people who are donating. There are people who the minute they see "Thon" will open their pockets, because they know what it is, who it's for, and where it goes. PCAA doesn't ring a bell with the majority of people. Not to mention that there is a more than fair amount of provincialism here in PA (as I'm sure you know) and people would rather donate to a cause where they know their money is going to stay in the state.

While I agree with donating to a known cause, it's the chapters that are not holding events that benefit other causes. When you're told that you cannot schedule an official chapter visit because the dates we want are over a canning weekend, I think that says something.

Umm...what if they said not to schedule a chapter visit over Homecoming, or Greek week, or any other time that they know sisters simply will be too busy or won't be around? People go to Pittsburgh or Philly and can, they don't stay on campus.

Really, are we trying to instill the value of philanthropy in general, or only the value of the philanthropy the sorority's leadership has chosen?

I think the former is far more important.

I don't know about other campuses with a large number of sororities and fraternities, but the number of different philanthropies at Penn State is CRAZY, with each national insisting that, in addition to the chapter raising upwards of a quarter million dollars (per fraternity/sorority duo) for 'Thon, that the chapter should also 1) organize something to benefit its own national's philanthropy and 2) participate in everyone else's philanthropy (trust me, if you don't go to Anchor Splash, DG is NOT going to come to your Special Olympic benefit).

So at Penn State, you are going to hold you own philanthropy AND participate in something like 20 others (and that's just Panhel sororities - we also want to support the NPHC sorority fundraisers) That's just insane. And we're not even counting all the fraternity philanthropies. And then you have Homecoming, Greek Week and Greek Sing to work on. And you're supposed to go to class once in a while.

And so maybe the suggestion goes out from HQ that the chapter NOT participate in 'Thon. I can just see that at recruitment: "oh, those ASAs, they seem nice, but did you know they don't do 'Thon?" A lot of the social calendar is dedicated to events with your 'Thon partner, so it would have the same effect as opting out of Greek Week or Homecoming, socially. Not good for your image on campus.

And even pulling back can be iffy - the guys you probably WANT to do 'Thon with want to partner with girls who are actually going to work at it.

So the collegians are stuck. They can piss off HQ - someone they talk to a few times a year (and most of the chapter hardly sees) by doing just-enough for their national philanthrophy (like everyone on else on campus does), or they can irritate the entire Greek system and risk their reputation ("those XYZx think they're too good for 'Thon - they don't care about the kids"). What do you think they're going to choose?

I never said we asked them to not support Thon. I was giving my opinion as someone who worked for a national organization and worked specifically with our chapter at Penn State. Do we punish them for supporting Thon? Absolutely not. I understand its importance, but at the same time I became frustrated with the lack of involvement with the causes important to our organization.

And Penn State is not the only campus suffering from over-extension when it comes to philanthropy events. I think it's a larger problem at many campuses, especially those that also compete with large scale national philanthropic groups.

Maybe I'm tired, but what did you mean? Like Race for the Cure and other things that go on around the town the college is in?

I imagine that each chapter deals with a different situation - at some schools, for instance, a sorority's event for their national philanthropy might be one of the highlights of the social calendar. But when you have about 45 IFC
fraternities and 19 Panehl sororities, pluS black greek organizations, all competing with a LOT of different events, it gets crazy..

Check out this video from THON! Love it!

Tucker Haas singing "Boom Boom Pow": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUuLOIXMDZ8

That was so cute!

hii
 

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!

Green World

Instead of standing on corners like beggers, why don't you get real jobs?

Because it actually pays more to beg. I did the math once, if you worked for 8 hours at say $7 an hour (ignoring taxes, which would take from your profit), you'd make $56. In five hours of canning you usually make at least $100 per person. So it's actually smarter to beg. :)

Last time I went canning, we made $1820 in 5 hours.
That's $364 an hour & almost $73/hr per person.
And this is a charity event that raises money to help support the families of kids with cancer and the expenses/treatments that come with it as well as further research. People are good people and willing to give because no one wants little children to be dying of cancer. No one wants anyone to be dying of cancer.

Who is this jackhole? :rolleyes:

NO. You forgot the 2.5 hours you spend driving wherever and the 2.5 hours you spend driving back to PSU. You also spend about $50 in gas for the trip.

PS. Panhandling is illegal in many areas.

Canning is ghetto.

You could have made the same money with a real job.

It's just madmax, ignore him :)

THON
 

Looks like this d-bag didn't gain admission to Penn State and he's taking it out on our nationally-recognized philanthropy. Keep it up, my friend. Keep it up. No one really cares what some loser thinks of our community service efforts that have helped many families.

We Are...Penn State!

It's usually $30, actually, and split among four or five people that's not bad at all. We all consider it part of our donation to THON.

And that's why you obtain permits to solicit in the township that you're in. Have a great day. :)

Ahem.

And in case you don't read News & Politics threads, he/she is a troll who just looks to get a rise out of people (which he/she has succeeded at here). Seriously, not worth your time.

Are you that inompetant that you can't find a $150 a week job within 150 miles of campus?

Since when does a bunch of people standing on corners begging equal a dance marathon?

That's awesome! You donated to my chapter, then! I'm an alumna, though but, THANKS SO MUCH!

F-T-K...For-The-Kids!!!

WOW.
 

wow. that's an incredible amount of money.:eek: