One of the greatest assets of American society is that people care. People are willing to make personal sacrifices for good causes. Last weekend we had one of the most successful charity programs in Penn State history in which 536 "marathoners overcome sleep, aching feet to raise $671,573 for the kids."

Let us all salute these admirable Penn Staters as well as those who generously "bought" their dancing time.

Now this great event is over, it is time for us to reflect a little about the positive and negative effects of the program. There are many positive effects which everybody already knows and there is no need to reiterate them.

It is the negative effects that we should ponder here. In addition to these 536 marathoners, there must be as many others who also had neglected study for the whole weekend.

All these marathoners were so tired after the program that they probably would not be able to study for half of the next week. See how many hours of the valuable study time of Penn State students are lost in the name of a good cause.

A conservative estimate places the lost study hours at 30,000 person-hours. You can argue that it is well worth it since each person-hour raised well over $20 for the the good cause. Indeed it is well worth the hours.

My question is whether we can have better methods to raise money for the same good causes. Do those people who "bought time" from the marathoners really enjoy seeing the marathoners losing sleep, having aching feet and in addition also losing their valuable study time?

Not at the time when all statistics show that American students spend least time studying than their counterparts in most developed and civilized countries in the world.

Would not those who are truly kind-hearted and who would want to do something to help the needy find ways to raise money and at the time can also improve the education of the students as well as the welfare of the society?

Would not they want to organize instead "study marathons," "social work marathons" or "training marathons" in which students "sale" the hours they sacrifice from partying and dating for their study and the "extra hours" they will devote themselves to study, to do social works such as cleaning the city or the environment or helping the sick and weak, or for the training of some worthwhile activities?

Most of these activities are not fun and probably are more difficult to attract public support. If this is the case then the American public should be educated.

Why would not one support charity programs which can not only raise money for the needy without inflicting pains on others or losing valuable study times of others but can also benefit to the growth of students and the welfare of the society?