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The Lion's Eye
March 15, 2002
THON: Dancing with all their hearts
Not your normal hand jive
By DAN ZACHER
Staff writer
You might as well forget all your
preconceptions of ballroom dancing and -
Hand Jive Contests from Grease, this
year's THON is like nothing you could
ever believe.
For the second year THON,
which is short for "Dance Marathon," was
held in Rec Hall at University Park. It last-
ed from 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22 to 7 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 24.
Spotlights filled the skies of State
College in an attempt to pull spectators in
to cheer on dancers from each Penn State
Campus and a number of University Park's
Clubs and Greek Clubs. There were 700
dancers in all
On the floor there were more than
the dancers. There were also security,
reporters, and the families of the dancers;
all of which created a maze of people in
the small gymnasium floor. To add to the
bedlam of the floor were the moralers.
Moralers are people assigned by THON to
each of the dancers. They keep the dancers
motivated to keep moving. They do this by
when b is
THON as a fre: S
Talines. Anthony Zangara, Andrew
Lowry, Keith Farrell, Pradeep Kulkarni,
THON would like. to thank
all of their many supporters. Here is
a list of some of those who helped to
make a difference this year:
Cathy Nguyen, Joe Reilly, Haley
Schorza, Mike Bowers, Scott Anderman,
AJ Santini, Andrea Ricciardi, Nelson
talking to them and giving them gifts.
They also deliver dancer mail, little signs
and letters of motivation, from the campus
to their dancer.
There are a lot of prejudges that
can arise from hearing the phrase: "48-
Hour Dance Marathon."
First off ... no they do not dance
for 48 hours. There are periods where the
dancers are allowed to stop off and talk to
the crowd, eat and drink for and assort-
ment of fruits, juices, and caffeine-free
drinks and, yes, they can even make use of
the lavatories. The only real catch to thatis - -
as the THON website says it is a "48-hour
no-sitting, no-sleeping fundraising event."
The Dancers do a lot to pass the
time including throwing footballs or
mouse pads (which act as Frisbees in this
case), bouncing Giant balls, play dodge
ball, or shooting each other, and the crowd,
with water guns.
One of the first things done was
teaching of this year's “Line Dance.”
Following the choreographer on the stage,
everyone in the building made movements
to key words like Barry Bonds or DVDs.
They repeated the routine to learn it- from
: sontell a
Alpo Patel, Rajesh Patel, Ravi Patel, KK
Patel, Dave Park, Christine Ferroni,
Sandy Sylvestri, Megan Barrett, Steve
Dart, Sarah Gallatig, Eric Kessler,
Renee Lutz, Daireen Garcia, Juan Perez,
and Oliver Garcia.
8 pm. to 9 p.m. on Friday and did the
entire line dance by themselves at the top
of every hour throughout the weekend.
With every Dance Marathon
there is music. This years THON housed a
wide assortment of recorded music includ-
ing at one point both “The Chicken
Dance” and M.C. Hammer's “Can't Touch
This” back-to-back.
There were also live bands like
four-time THON proformer Velveeta who
proformed covers of Bon Jovi's “You Give
Love A Bad Name,” Kiss's “I Want to
Rock and Roll All Night,” Dexy's
Midnight Runners’ “Come On Eileen” and
many more.
One of the highlights of the show
was the traditional telling of the Four
By JENNIFER RUFO and
GERRY DUNGAN
Staff writers
Amidst the floods of people, the
clapping hands, and dancing students
great contributions were made to the stu-
dent-run organization THON. THON is
one of the biggest events of Centre
County with all types of people there for
all types of different reasons. When Fish,
24, from QWK Rock 97.1 was asked
what kept him coming back for the third
year in a row, he explained how his radio
station feels that they were a big part of
the beginning years of THON almost 30
years ago.
“We're THON's biggest contribu-
tors and supporters,” Fish said.
Chris Mack, 22, from HOT
107.9 enjoyed his first year at THON
working for the newly formed radio sta-
tion. He is a senior at Penn State
University Park and became involved
with THON because of his roommate.
And then there is Beth Stieber, a
21-year-old Penn State U-Park senior
who was waiting for her lost friends
when interviewed. She is also a first-
year participant in THON, however she
has been a supporter throughout her years
at Penn State.
This year at THON, she has
three friends on the floor and they work *
for Frog Humor magazine. .
When asked if this was what she
expected THON to be, she simply
exclaimed, “This is absolutely amazing.”
Back on the dance floor, electric-
ity was in the air. More than 700 THON
supporters were bouncing around in an
> Photo by Andrew Lowry
Everyone comes together with a common goal on the THON dance floor.
Diamonds Story. Here about 20 children
go up on stage and tell a little section of
the story. There are also staff member
helping them on stage.
THON may be over this year, but
the spirit still lives on. Delco's chapter of
THON is always looking for people to
help them with fundraising and canning
- throughout the year. You don't have to be a
Danny Zuko and make your way to the
dance floor to help out this worthy cause.
Be sure to look out for THON
when it starts up again next fall.
Remember, it is for the kids.
- For more information checkout
the THON website at http://www.thon.org
or stop by the Lion's Den and inquire
about THON in the SGA office.
Off the dance floor
almost chaotic fun-filled madness.
All the dancers at that point were
up for 30-some hours. Most of those sup-
porting from the stadium benches were
depriving themselves of sleep right up
there with them. This reporter is proud to
announce that most THON supporters
representing Delco were among the hun-
dereds bouncing off walls.
Juan Perez, a Delco freshman,
was up for 27 hours and was still busting
a move and dancing along to the music
while being interviewed. When asked
why he came up to THON for the first
time, Perez only looked around himself at
the amazing sight and smiled the word,
“Cool.” :
But there was one Delco THON
supporter who was not up and “getting
down” with the THON groove.
Joe Reilly, a Delco junior and a
chairperson for Delco's THON, has been
going to THON for three years now.
When asked why he was up for more
than 31 hours, Reilly responded,
“[I] feel awesome ‘cause I'm
doing it for kids with cancer.”
But a couple of snapping
motions in front of his unblinking eyes
told another story. He was sitting there in
a stupor. It was hard to understand why
he commented that THON was the most
memorable life experience. That is until
the music for the “Line Dance” came on.
It was like someone turned on a switch in
Reilly, because he immediately got up
and danced like there was no tomorrow.
“Every time they do this line
dance, they are energized and I am able
to go on,” he said just before he collapsed
back down onto the bench.
Ghauks to dll usho
‘helped TGHON
rdise $13.6 12.13