The dance marathon’s public relations director, Maddy Hughes, cites safety concerns for students and volunteers for the fundraising changes.
“After just some recent events and renewed concerns around the safety of all the students and volunteers that were traveling, we decided to make the decision to cancel all fundraising that requires out-of-town travel for the rest of THON 2019,” Hughes said.
This comes after THON reported three car accidents from students traveling to fundraise just last month. It also follows the 2016 decision to phase out canning after car accidents in 2011 and 2015 killed two students.
“It’s definitely a major change in our fundraising model, and it’s definitely going to have an effect on our organizations and our volunteers and their fundraising efforts, but we’re really hoping to work together and be able to find new solutions,” Hughes said.
Hughes said THON will begin to rely more on other fundraising methods.
