Feb. 16 commenced the start of Penn State’s 52nd THON. THON is the largest student-run philanthropy which enhances the lives of children and families impacted by childhood cancer.
The event consists of a 46 hour no sleeping, no sitting dance marathon which occurs in Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. Most organizations on campus will choose two to three dancers to participate in the event while cheering them on in the stands.
Since dancing in THON has become extremely competitive, students will choose to register as Independent Dancer Couples (IDC). They raise money throughout the year and then get placed into a lottery to find out if they will get to participate in the event.
Independent dancer couples are motivated by a series of different events when choosing to register for the lottery.
“We don’t get a lot of dancers because we’re such a small chapter and a lot of people are passionate about it so we thought we should do it as an IDC,” said Tiffany Mendoza, a fourth-year studying architectural engineering.
Mendoza and her partner, Ava Percock, a fourth-year studying aerospace engineering, met in their sorority, Phi Sigma Rho.
Mendoza and Percock discuss how whenever they would hit a major milestone in their fundraising journey they would immediately call each other to talk about the news. So, when they received the emails that said they were going to dance at THON, they were over the moon.
“My email didn’t go through at the same time hers did (Mendoza). Mine went to my junk mail. So, when she texted me and she was like ‘did you get the email,’ and I was like ‘no’ she told me to check again,” Percock said.
Max Lebofsky and Lucas Walker are another independent dancer couple at THON. They have been friends since elementary school and they are both part of Serve State, a service organization at Penn State.
“Me and him stood the whole time together,” Lebofsky said, when speaking on his THON experience last year.
“We just loved it so much and even got the opportunity to be on the floor for a little bit with a captain’s pass and after that we just realized it’s our senior year, it’s something we really enjoy doing and it’s something we should do,” Walker said.
Both have pervious experience being on THON committees and raising money for their service organization.
“Well, I found out by accident,” Lebofsky, a fourth-year said. “My uncle texted me to see if it went through (donation) and when I went into Think and when I went to the THON Weekend tab, it said ‘lottery status accepted.”
Fiona Lavery and Morgan Boll, both seniors who met in their sorority Zeta Tau Alpha, discuss how they raised money for their sorority for the past three years.
“I did THON my freshman year from home because of Covid, but it was obvious how much of a big deal it was to our organization,” Lavery said.
“I stood for the 46 the past two years with Zeta (Zeta Tau Alpha) and ATO (Alpha Tau Omega),” Boll said.
Boll and Lavery live in a house with four other of their sorority sisters, and all of them had signed up to be independent dancer couples.
“Everyone heard us scream,” Boll fourth-year said. “And then we heard our friends on the third floor scream, so all six of us got it.”
All of the independent dancer couples seemed to have one thing in common, their love for the children who they THON for. All three pairs said “even if we didn’t get it, it would still be money going towards helping the kids.”