As the mother of a Thon child, I can't believe I have to defend the organizations that have made us feel so welcome at Penn State. My son, Trent, 8, has been a Thon child for three years. Our adopt-a-family organization is greek and after reading Monday's column ("Some greeks distort meaning of Thon") I could not imagine who the writer was talking about. If these students are doing Thon purely for recognition, then why do they come visit us every summer, invite us into their homes to meet their families and spend their weekends watching my kids? The students in our organization have become our kids, and as a mom, my claws are out. We couldn't be prouder to wear the same T-shirts they wear, which bears our son's name as well as the other child they've adopted. In our years with Thon, we've met so many dedicated people both greek and non-greek - people who have been there for us on a personal level. You need to walk one day in the shoes of any family adopted by an organization of any kind and find out what they truly mean to our family before you start criticizing anyone. I can't thank Thon and all the students involved enough for all they've done for our family. As an outsider looking in, Chris has totally missed the big picture. Trent went into remission in July and guess who was at our home to celebrate this momentous occasion. Yep, the greeks of past and present. And, no one had a T-shirt or hoodie with Greek letters on it.