Penn State’s 46-Hour Dance Marathon, known to many as THON, begins Friday. The no-sitting, no-sleeping event raises millions each year for pediatric cancer research and support. But some say a change in the fundraising methods THON used this year may impact the overall total.
Mike Makowski, a member of a THON Dancer Relations Committee, helped to create a football tournament with a THON alternative fundraising committee.
"I think especially this year we’ve played a huge role," Makowski said. "I know a lot of people who are really, really pushing this year for fundraising season and not just THON weekend activities. Alternative fundraising has to kind of step up in a way, because we have to fill a gap of sorts.”
Normally, THON Committees like Dancer Relations focus less on fundraising and more on their specific committee tasks, which for Makowski means providing emotional and physical support to one of over 700 dancers THON weekend.
But an adjustment in THON’s usual fundraising model has the organization searching for alternate fundraising methods.
THON’s lead Public Relation’s Captain Graceanne Domino says canning, where students collect donations from drivers while standing by the roadside holding cans, is one of the most commonly known methods of fundraising.
“I think we kind of pride ourselves in the fact that THON’s fundraising model is very multifaceted," Domino said, "but in terms of historically I would say that that seems to be the first think that people always think of when they think of Penn Staters fundraising for THON is canning.”
THON decided last year to take a look at the safety of canning as a method of fundraising after the death of THON volunteer Tally Sepot during a canning trip. Domino says THON canceled the second canning weekend in an attempt to correct the problem. But while investigating, uncovered more issues than expected.
“In that process of looking into our procedures, what risk could we remove, it kind of unveiled a deeper problem," Domino said. "I wouldn’t say that we weren’t aware of it, I just don’t think we realized it was as big as it was.”
That “deeper problem” Domino is referring to is known as forced fundraising, where volunteers feel pressured by their organizations to fundraise or attend fundraising events. According to Domino, THON’s executives received several complaints by students who said they were forced to fundraise. As a result, they decided to cancel the third and final canning weekend.
With canning no longer an option, THON groups depended on other traditional fundraising methods, like online donations, company matching, and canvassing. Canvassing is similar in ways to canning, where groups of students travel to communities to ask for donations door-to-door.
So why cancel canning trips but allow students to drive around the state to canvass? Domino says the solution to safety issues isn’t easy.
“We openly admit that there will still always be risk associated with students getting in cars together and going places to fundraise," Domino said. "But as an organization we’re in the process of reviewing those practices and procedures, monitoring volunteers’ activities and just how we can improve these practices to remove as much of that risk as we possibly can.”
Fundraisers, like the football game that Dancer Relations put on, raise money for THON. But Laurel Hyneman, a member of Dancer Relations and of Orchesis, a dance team at Penn State, says sometimes the alternative fundraisers are asking a lot of volunteers.
“I think the biggest thing is that’s it’s difficult because we are asking the same people every single time for these fundraisers," Hyneman said. "So the money is pretty much coming out of the committee member’s pocket.”
Even with other forms of fundraising, members of many organizations have a feeling that THON’s total will be lower than usual this year.
In the end, Hyneman says she’ll stay positive no matter what the total is.
“Either way, it’s still in the millions, the money that we raise, and it’s still for the children, which is what THON is really about. It’s not so much ‘oh, well we raised this amount of money.’ It’s about the community that THON creates and the outreach that we provide for the children,” said Hyneman.
Since it began in 1973, THON has raised over $127 million for the Four Diamonds, which helps to pay the bills of families with children fighting cancer and provide funds for pediatric cancer research.
THON 2016 will end on Sunday at 4 p.m. Volunteers will find out then if THON's total will be affected by the changes to fundraising.