One dancer will add special enthusiasm to this year's Dance Marathon for dancers and families alike.

As a past Four Diamonds Fund child, Casey Moore (senior-English and Spanish) has been involved with the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (Thon) for nine years.

"Each year she's attended she's gotten involved in a different way," said Linda Moore, Casey's mother. "I could just see from the dedication and drive on her face that she was gong to dance this year."

She has been a huge inspiration to Matt Thomas, one of her best friends from high school, who is now the overall Morale chair for Thon.

"It's inspiration with everyone, she is completing the circle with everyone at Thon," Thomas said. "She had everyone dancing for her, and now she is grown up and she is officially cured of cancer and now she has raised hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the Four Diamonds Fund and now she is dancing."

Casey's family also is very proud and supportive of her decision to dance.

"She is showing [the dancers] what [they're] doing works," Linda Moore said. "It's an inspiration for the families to see someone who has made it though the treatment and has made it."

In the past, Moore has been involved in Thon as both a patient and a Moraler, and she's excited to have the opportunity to be a dancer.

"Last year, I was sitting there during the last hour of Thon and I thought, 'I have been in a Thon family for this many years,' and dancing was the next step," Moore said. "It was time for me just to be a dancer."

The Moore family learned of Casey's diagnosis when she was 12 years old. After initially being misdiagnosed, oncologists determined she had acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common of childhood cancers.

"The devastation of hearing the news that your 12-year-old daughter [has cancer] is just inconceivable," Linda said. "You operate on auto-pilot and on what we need to do to help her through this."

Casey was cared for at the National Institute of Health (NIH) as well as Hershey Medical Center throughout her treatment. After being referred to the Four Diamonds Fund at Hershey, Linda was able to take a leave of absence from her job for a year in order to stay with Casey full time.

During the two years and three months of Casey's treatment, she would spend a week and a half at NIH, go home for four days, and then head to Hershey for one week. The process then started over.

"It was easier for my family to visit me in Hershey," Casey said.

Hershey was a short drive from her hometown outside Harrisburg, and it allowed her father and sister to visit on weekends. Along with the Four Diamonds Fund also came many friendships for Casey during her time in Hershey.

"Living in the hospital for so long, we became a large family," Linda said. "Going to Thon and seeing what the students did to provide money for us as families and continued research is just very emotional for us."

The Moore family began attending Thon in 1994.

"I remember walking on to the rickety stage [in the White Building] and having it be the most overwhelming experience in the world," Casey said. "Good overwhelming."

The involvement of Thon has grown considerably since the Moore family began attending in 1994.

"It's very hard in a lot of ways because you realize what an unselfish kind of thing they are going through," said Linda. "To do this for someone you barely know is astounding."

Thomas said he owes much of his involvement with Thon to Casey.

"She is actually the reason I even have anything to do with Thon," Thomas said. "And I owe everything that I have done with Thon to Casey."

Casey has come to realize that everyone is accepted at Thon, and that is basically all it is about, Linda said.

"No one cares that you don't have hair or if you're bloated because of the medicine you are on," Linda said. "They are treated like normal kids, and it just makes them feel so good, and positive and proud about themselves."

The Moore family will continue their tradition of visiting Thon, and this time they will have the opportunity to cheer on the one they love as she dances for the cause.