After standing for 48 hours at last year's Interfraternity Council/ Panhellenic Dance Marathon (Thon), one visitor was inspired to write a book.

"Thomas Baldrick is an author from Philadelphia who writes books about children," said Sara Ridge, overall public relations coordinator for Thon. "He came to Thon last year to promote his book Kids Rule, and he actually stood for the whole 48 hours."

Baldrick, a writer who wanted to do more with children and charities, heard about Thon from a Penn State alumnus while at a book signing, and he decided to get involved.

"I told them I would come and donate proceeds to Thon," said Baldrick. "The more I talked to Jayme Rubright [the overall Thon chair last year], the more I felt compelled to stand for the 48 hours straight."

During those 48 hours, he stood at a level in Rec Hall where he could see the sun set and rise throughout the weekend.

"It was the best and worst thing I have ever done in my life. When you add the not sitting down and [the fact that] I didn't have moralers, I did it basically solo until a moraler noticed," Baldrick said. "She came up to me and said 'are you doing what I think you are doing,' and I just started crying."

After the initial moraler spoke to Baldrick, many more followed with food and smiles.

"They just got me through it," he said. "It's something that I think about often and when I've come up with things that seem difficult I just [say] I've done Thon I can do this or I can do that."

Baldrick took pages of notes and conducted interviews at Thon last year. He decided to incorporate this experience into another idea he had for a book and promised to have it completed by this year's Thon.

"I was so blown away at how amazing Penn State students are that I promised that I would be back [this year] to feature this incredible event," Baldrick said. "I knew I was going to do this book and it was the first work I did on it."

The book that he will be promoting at this year's Thon is called A Million & One Ways to Celebrate a Child and he will donate five dollars from the sale of each book to the Four Diamonds Fund.

His newest book offers many examples of ways to appreciate the children and have fun with them. Baldrick came up with many of his own ideas and added some everyday things about children that many people take for granted.

"[The book has] over 20 inspirational stories about wonderful people who like to help kids." said Sharla Feldscher, Baldrick's publicist. "It's amazing how committed he was to Thon."

The first chapter of this book, Diamonds Are a Child's Best Friend, is completely about Thon.

"It includes interviews, the history of it, students' perspectives, family perspectives and my perspective," Baldrick said. "The reason I wrote about my perspective is to help the reader understand how difficult it really is and how I felt about it."

During the year in which he wrote the book, he had his moments when he feared it would not be completed in time.

Baldrick's voice broke as he started talking about the stories he wrote about.

One experience he wrote about was a mother who he met at Thon last year. She lost her son to cancer and he describes the struggles that she went through.

Soon writing took up all of his time.

"It consumed my fall. It consumed my life," Baldrick said. "I wrote round the clock whenever I could."

People in Baldrick's life told him they would understand if the book was not completed in time, but he would not have that.

"I am one of those people that believes if you don't have your word you don't have anything," Balrdrick said. "All I could think of was how hard the students work and how happy it makes the families. There was no way I was going to let them down, no way."

Baldrick's books are ready for the trip to Thon this year, where he will attempt to stand for another 48 hours.