By Neha Prakash
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER | nqp5019@psu.edu
In an effort to educate greek pledges at Penn State about Thon, the Acacia fraternity, in conjunction with Gamma Phi Beta, held an information session Thursday evening, showcasing the work, benefits and history behind Thon.
The information session, held at Acacia, 234 Locust Lane, was comprised of a PowerPoint and individual presentations by the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon committee chairpersons and captains within the fraternity and sorority.
The event was created last year by Todd Hoffman, a donor relations captain for Thon and an Acacia Thon chairman, and this year he and other Thon captains hope to extend the event to all other greek organizations.
"Our ultimate goal is to take this orientation and spread it to all organizations so that we can teach all members what Thon is so they have a better appreciation of it, especially before the first canning weekend," Hoffman (senior-finance) said.
Acacia held the event last year, and Hoffman said it really helped boost participation and raise more money for Thon on behalf of the fraternity. Since it had already proved successful, Hoffman said that was the reason he wanted to implement it in other organizations.
The presentation contained pictures of past Thon experiences, videos from Thon 2008 and slides explaining what Thon is, what the Four Diamonds Fund is, and history about how Thon came to be such a large event. The different captains also addressed how to raise money besides canning and gave information about their Thon families.
Brent Whitesell, an Acacia Thon chairman, tried to inspire the group of pledges by sharing his experience in Thon -- his sister was a previous Thon child.
"My family wouldn't have gotten through it without Thon," Whitesell (senior-economics) said. "Thon is why I came to Penn State."
Many students clearly saw the benefits of having a session introducing Thon to new students.
"We want to do it for all the organizations, if they are greek or non-greek. It's just empowering and encouraging to motivate all these new members and hopefully keep the momentum going from year to year," said Caihlin Durkin, the Panhellenic associate vice president for Thon and Greek Sing, and a Delta Gamma sorority sister.
Thursday's presentation at Acacia was the "kick-off event" before Hoffman and other Thon captains go to other fraternities and sororities presenting the same PowerPoint.
Pledges at the event were receptive to the presentation.
Alyssa Killian (freshman-community and environment development) is pledging Gamma Phi Beta and felt motivated by the presentation.
"It was really helpful, I learned more ways to earn money," Killian said, adding that the videos shown got her more excited to be involved in Thon.
Samantha O'Brien, special events overall chairwoman, felt the event, being presented to all organizations, goes above and beyond educating pledges.
"It's helping to bridge the gap between Thon committees and greek organizations. We're all working together for the cause," O'Brien (senior-supply chain information systems) said.
