STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The annual 46-hour dance celebration known as THON took place this past weekend at Penn State. This was the first year that students could not leave State College to fundraise, but that didn't stop them from surpassing expectations.
"It was amazing," said THON dancer Noah Chast. "It was long and tiring, but it was great just being down on the floor seeing all the families and seeing my org back up in the stands."
A large part of THON is fundraising through student organizations. This year was the first year that students could not leave the city limits of State College to fundraise through canvasing and canning trips. Several students told Newswatch 16 that they thought this decision would hurt the final donation total.
"It is a difficult aspect of fundraising, especially with canvasing being canceled last year, we were pretty worrisome of how much money we raised throughout the year and the overall total of THON in general," said junior Billy Nicholl.
However, students raised over $11 million dollars at THON, about $1 million more than last year.
"I thought it would dip a little bit, but honestly, THON has been fantastic in finding new and creative ways to keep fundraising going. The THON spirit hasn't gone away at all, so people have found ways to make sure we are raising as much as we normally do and surpassing it by a million dollars like we did this year," Chast said.
Students at Penn State University told Newswatch 16 that they had to come up with new ways to raise money. One of those students raised $20,000 just by sending envelopes across the country.
Billy Nicholl is a member of the THON organization known as Eclipse. His organization raised over $150,000 this year.
"We gave out all of our members THONvelopes, and they were able to send letters to their friends and family, and I just watched them come in and checked my mailbox every day because I got so many, and I was proud to raise over $20,000."
Students tell Newswatch 16 that they are happy with this year's total but are already looking forward to surpassing it next year.