When Bess Atkinson walks onto the Dance Marathon floor tonight, it will bring back memories of the times she was there as a child with cancer.

She is one of the former Four Diamonds children who are giving back to the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon this weekend.

Atkinson (freshman-psychology), first attended Thon at the age of 11 after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that forms tumors in bones' blood vessels.

"It was emotional," said Atkinson about her first Thon experience. "It was very touching to see all the dancers dancing for us kids."

Atkinson came to Penn State partly because of her experience as a Four Diamonds child, she said. After attending her first Thon, she hoped to dance in it.

"She's very excited," her father Bruce Atkinson said. "This has really been the focus of her attention for weeks now."

Another former Four Diamonds child, Jeanette Schreiber (sophomore-journalism), worked this year as a family relations captain for Thon.

Schreiber was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 16, she said. She found her diagnosis hard to believe.

"I was scared," she said. "I come from a really small town and things like that didn't happen to people. It's supposed to happen to someone else."

Schreiber said the Four Diamonds Fund helped her family to pay for treatments, which were a strain on their budget.

The Four Diamonds Fund covered the expenses of many things that her insurance would not pay for, such as her hospital room and even gas for her parents to visit her at the Hershey Medical Center, she said.

Schreiber gained new friendships when she attended Thon a month after her diagnosis.

The dancer representing her during her first Thon experience was the chair of Thon's communications committee, which she volunteered to be a part of last year, she said.

This year, Schreiber has had a similar experience working on Thon's family relations committee.

"My family relations committee is probably 19 of the biggest-hearted people I've ever met," she said.