I would like to respond to Erik Turner's letter ("Changing Thon's rules would improve weekend," Feb. 23). Turner, I want to say thank you for your involvement in the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon. We're all in this together. However, I disagree with you that the rules need to be changed. I've been involved with Thon since 1999, and this discussion seems to surface every couple of years. Having danced in Thon in 2001 and 2003, I want to explain why we need to dance for 48 hours. First of all, Thon has never caused the smallest amount of harm to my academic career. I may have felt sluggish the next week, but no more than would happen after a hard weekend of partying. On the contrary, Thon enriched my academic experience in ways that I can never truly put into words. It taught me that helping others is the most important thing we can do.

Secondly, my mother, a cancer survivor and my biggest Thon support, once told me what Thon dancers go through (pain, exhaustion, frustration, a feeling that it's never going to end, a crazy, emotional roller-coaster) are all things that cancer patients experience every day. While we only have to deal with it for a few hours once a year, these kids and families endure these exact same things day after day. The biggest reason, for me, that Thon needs to be 48 hours is that year after year, in the face of every change, event and political argument, Thon proves that people still know how to be there for each other.

If we change Thon to an event where people dance in shifts, we're still raising money, but we're not really giving anything of ourselves. The truly meaningful moments of my Thons came when I felt I couldn't stay awake any longer, because somebody always came along and carried me through it.

Improve the weekend? Impossible.