As hour 15 of the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon commenced early Saturday morning, dancers were kept motivated by a little known band and one very special surprise guest on the Rec Hall stage.

Lost Faculties is a band composed of six faculty members from the sociology department and one member from the department of human development and family studies.

However, as the band set up, the crowd noticed someone special up on stage. Penn State President Graham Spanier was among the members of the band with a smile on his face and an instrument in his hand.

Spanier made a cameo appearance with Lost Faculties playing the washboard.

"I've been playing [washboard] for about as long as I've been at Penn State," Spanier said. "Self-taught."

Though not a member of Lost Faculties, Spanier has played with the band before and said he was happy to be playing with the band at Thon.

"I've always thought Dance Marathon is the best thing we do at Penn State," he said.

Several Thon dancers said they were surprised to see Spanier perform.

"That's awesome. I'm surprised he's playing. [The music] is helping a lot," said Tanja Rebernik (senior-biology), a Spanish Club dancer.

Others were happy to see the band get into more upbeat songs.

"It started a little slow, but now it's getting up-tempo, which is good," Schreyer Honors College dancer Jen Erhart (senior-mechanical engineering) said.

Founding band members are sociology professors Wayne Osgood, Stacy Rogers and Eric Silver.

The three have been playing together for about six years, but the band has since expanded. Sociology professors Paul Amato, Mark Hill, and Sam Richards began playing in Lost Faculties three to four years ago and have been joined in the past few weeks by David Almeida, associate professor of human development and family studies.

Almeida, who was only able to practice with the band three times prior to Saturday's performance, said he was thrilled to be able to play on stage during Thon, especially since it is his first semester at Penn State.

"It's a thrill," he said. "It's a wonderful intro to the student body at Penn State."

Almeida was equally as excited about playing with Spanier.

"Not only is he a great president, but he can keep really good time," he said.

Lost Faculties played eight songs, including several originals, two of which were written especially for Thon. The band started shortly before 9 a.m. with "Thon Blues," a tribute to the woes of the dancers and then moved on to "If You Want to Know Me."

They also played "Always Believing," an original song wrote as a Thon anthem.

The original songs were co-written by Silver and sociology instructor Laurie Mulvey.

Rogers, a vocalist, said she was extremely excited to be performing at Thon.

"It's such a huge honor to get to do it. I have a little bit of laryngitis, so we tried to find songs that have a sound like Janis Joplin. We also tried to find upbeat songs to keep the dancers going," she said.

During the performance, the band members gave out words of encouragement.

"We're so inspired by what you're doing. Thank you so much," Hill said to the crowd.

The band invited several dancers to come on stage to dance and sing along with them.

Some of the dancers said it was an interesting and fun experience to be dancing up on stage with Spanier and Lost Faculties.

"They're good musicians," said Kevin Giarnella (senior-broadcast journalism), an Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity dancer.

After the performance, the band members were all smiles.

"It was very short, but we had a lot of fun," Hill said.

Several parents said they were grateful for the experience and for the dance marathon itself. They added that they were glad to see so many people from the Penn State community involved.

"It's overwhelming. Everybody here makes [the kids] all feel special," said Jennifer Kettering, an Ephrata resident.

The band members said they were proud to be able to help. "It feels nice to have the opportunity to support students in this way. Not just the dancers, but everybody involved," Richards said.