At first glance, 220 HUB isn't much to look at.

Boxes are stacked erratically, wires and cables line the tiny room and papers and folders are everywhere.

It certainly doesn't look like the home of the world's largest student-run philanthropic event, but it is.

Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon overall chair (i.e. the big cheese of Thon) Seth Moser (senior-mechanical engineering) has learned to ignore the clutter after his near yearlong tenure. Everyone knows him upon his entrance into the office, but he is still humble about his role in the annual fund-raiser to help kids with cancer.

"The magic of Thon comes from the captains and Thon chairs and everyone else out there inspiring people to believe in a cure and they work hard for that," he said. "I don't want to think they're working for me as much as working with me."

With barely that much time to go before the big event, Joanna Allgood (sophomore-psychology) finds herself with far more duties than her position of communications captain and administrative assistant entail.

During her office hours Wednesday afternoon, Allgood was writing e-mail messages, answering the telephone and greeting people who drop by with questions.

One call came in from a woman asking if anyone in Thon could help her group choreograph an Israeli dance. A puzzled Allgood politely explained that Thon was not that type of dance marathon.

"Office hours are entertaining because ... you're just surrounded by people so warm and funny and love what they're doing so much," she said. "You're all working for the same thing. It's that outcome that drives all of us."

On the third floor, Thon has a second office of sorts, devoted entirely to the mail call committee.

Although quite larger than its companion office downstairs, the mail call room is lined with dozens of boxes on chairs and tables, giving the room an equally cramped feeling.

Hundreds of bags are filled with thousands of pieces of mail and it's the job of mail-call captains Josh Hopp (senior-marketing) and Katie Clark (junior-elementary education) to make sure it's all done right.

Hopp says that in the final rush to Thon, he and his co-captain have spent nearly eight hours a day making sure everything is in it's right place.

"When we're not in class, we're in the mail call room," he said. "It may seem like a lot of work, but we love it."

Andrew Simonelli (senior-public relations), special events overall, drops by to see how things are going.

Simonelli has just come from four hours in the computer lab designing the program for Thon, The Diamonder. Someone mentions that Simonelli pulls a lot of all-nighters -- and he looks it, too.

"I look at pictures of Four Diamonds kids on my binder," he said, explaining where his drive to keep working all hours comes from.

He slowly pulls out a heavy, four-inch thick binder full of business cards, agendas and other various paperwork. Encasing it are pictures of himself with various Thon children.

"This thing is also how I get my workout," Simonelli joked.

Back downstairs in the tiny office, Moser said he thinks he has Thon summarized in one word.

"I think it's 'together' " he said. "I'm just so amazed by the friendship from people who hardly know me but are working together on this. The one thing I rarely get the opportunity to say is thanking them for making this happen."