Schools across the country are checking out Penn State's dance moves.

This weekend, Indiana University, which hosts its own annual dance marathon, will send 14 members of their dance marathon overall committee to Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.

"[We want to] see how the best do it," said Chris Carlson, Indiana University's dance marathon president.

The Indiana University overall committee will be given a behind-the-scenes tour by Jeff Sirkins, Thon communications chair, to help them with ideas for their own event.

The Indiana University dance marathon raised $468,600 last year for Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Carlson said he is coming to Penn State to learn about the preparation that goes into Thon.

"Unfortunately, ours just isn't that big," he said.

Carlson added he wants to find out how Thon receives such large donations from organizations and groups.

"Obviously, we are looking to make ours grow," Carlson said.

Sirkin said he has received many calls and e-mails throughout the year from schools that want to learn from Thon. In addition to visitors from Indiana University, students from Kentucky University plan to make the trip up to Penn State.

Sirkin said on top of the expected schools, a lot of students from other colleges tend to show up randomly throughout the weekend.

He said schools visit Thon because Penn State has had years of experience.

"Whatever we do is 20 years ahead of what they do," Sirkin said.

He said most questions regard the success Penn State has had with Thon in previous years. "Chances are they'll have a lot of weird questions once they come up," Sirkin said.

Although students from the University of Florida (UF) have visited Thon in past years, they will not be able to attend this weekend's event.

David Gray, UF's dance marathon overall chair, said the school has learned a lot from Penn State in the past. "One thing we're trying to do is update our merchandising sale," he said.

He added UF will sell merchandise on the floor of its dance marathon this year, which has worked well at Penn State in the past.

"Two of our main goals are to raise awareness for the dance marathon and to raise money for our cause," said David Kanarek, UF dance marathon operations chair.

The UF dance marathon lasts 32 hours and raised $250,012 last year for the Children's Miracle Network at Shands Hospital.

Carlson said that since the Indiana University dance marathon is not until October, the overall committee has time. "We can implement any of the things we learn right away," he said.