The Four Diamonds Fund is a blessing to Roxanne Arndt.

Her little brother, Jordan, was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma -- an extremely malignant tumor attached to the skeletal muscles -- when he was just a year old. And although he is in remission now, he may not always be.

The Arndt family is just one example of the many Four Diamonds Fund families who receive both financial and emotional support from the cancer foundation. And 78 percent of the fund's revenue came from Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon last year.

Last year's marathon generated a record-breaking $785,835.35 -- the largest amount of money pledged to date. But Four Diamonds only collected $681,000 as of June 1991.

The remaining $100,000 from last year's unpaid pledges did not damage the Four Diamonds Fund, said Louise Huntley Brown, assistant director of development for the Hershey Medical Center.

National averages predict that a 72 percent collection ratio for fund raisers like the marathon is good, said Rick Funk, Greek Life coordinator. Money is also needed for administrative costs to keep the marathon running -- about $25,000 to $30,000, Funk added.

The 1991 marathon's collection ratio averaged about 92 to 95 percent. Funk said a billing error accounts for the low 87 percent collection ratio from last year.

Normally, the marathon's financial committee sends the first billing one week after the event and the second billing is mailed in March, said John Ferenchak, overall marathon chairman. But last year, the second billing wasn't sent until the summer.

The billing process has been updated from last year and should now be more efficient, Funk said.

Because Four Diamonds waits to allocate the money until after marathon organizers collect pledges and send a check to Four Diamonds, the low collection ratio didn't affect Four Diamond's, Huntley Brown said.

"We're just happy they can do it," she said.

Without the Dance Marathon, the Hershey Medical Center wouldn't be able to provide many of the services for its patients, Huntley Brown said. Research would not be possible, she added.

"So much of what you see (at Hershey), we wouldn't be able to do without (the students)," Huntley Brown said.

The dedication these students put forth is difficult to explain, said Les Arndt, Jordan and Roxanne Arndt's father.

Roxanne Arndt (junior-architecture) has first-hand experience of this dedication since she will dance in the marathon for her sorority -- Alpha Omicron Pi, 15 Heister Hall -- for the third year in a row.

"Four Diamonds is a blessing -- in every way they have helped my family," she said. "They've just been there."