Connor Pavlitsa might be dancing in THON 2026, but he was once in the shoes of THON kids. Pavlitsa overcame childhood cancer and is now here: making memories for other children.
Pavlitsa is a fourth-year aerospace engineering major who has been a part of Delta Gamma & Delta Upsilton Benefitting THON for all four years of college. Now, as a senior, Pavlitsa serves as Delta Upsilon’s Donor & Alumni Relations Chair. Pavlitsa, a member of Delta Upsilon along with their THON partner, Delta Gamma, has five THON families: The Martins, the Laboys, the Meeses, the Whitmans and the Testas. Pavlitsa discussed how much his THON families mean to him.
“The Martin’s are brand new, and we just met Weston today for the first time,” Pavlitsa said. “It was the best experience. It was a little boy who’s 9-years-old, he just got back from his Make A Wish trip.”
Pavlitsa isn’t concerned about making memories for the children. While it’s a lot to meet a THON family for the first time, Pavlitsa talked about how it’s not hard when “you’re having the best time.”
In addition to the newer families, Pavlitsa also recalled how he grew up with one of his org’s THON children. When Pavlitsa joined Delta Upsilon, his org’s THON child was the same age as him. Now, they’ve gone through college, 21st birthdays and other adult-ish activities. Instead of watching him grow up from a far, he was able to experience life alongside him.
“So being able to hang out with him the whole time, like we’re now kind of almost adults, but we were friends from like the very beginning of college,” Pavlitsa said. “Being able to go like, hang out with him, we’re all 21, I would go to the bars and it’s like, doing adult things.”
Pavlitsa had cancer as a child, and uses that to understand what his families are going through. He might’ve overcome his own diagnosis and treatment, but he doesn’t ever forget where he came from.
“This is all for them. I like making sure that they have a really great time,” Pavlitsa said. “I have my own personal experience, pediatric cancer, and knowing, like the struggle that families go through, and like, the kids go through… It’s terrible. I just remember how hard it is for kids like him. The kids like me when I had cancer growing up. Like, you’ve got to just keep standing for that.”
He acknowledges that nothing could ever amount to the pain that these children go through, but dancing for a cure is one way to help.
In addition to talking about his journey, Pavlitsa discussed his favorite parts of the line dance.
“Easily the ‘6-7,'” Pavlitsa said.
To end, Pavlitsa said he would want to add a new hype song to the line dance if he were given the chance.
“Last year they did the ‘Not Like Us’ song. Last year, DGDU would scream that part and it was really cool,” Pavlitsa said. “Or just adding a part like that where we could get like actually excited because every year, every time the line dance was on last year, we would scream that.”