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.