Max Kirby was close to tears yesterday for fear of missing last night's State College Spikes game, as his dad rushed the family to Penn State from his grandmother's house in Virginia.
Max Kirby, six years old, was diagnosed with a stage four germ cell tumor in 2005, his father Steve Kirby said. Max Kirby and his two-year-old sister were two of six children who threw the first pitch at Sunday's game, as part of the first Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon Night Out of the semester.
"Oh, he was very excited," Steve Kirby said. "He likes baseball and he loves playing baseball on the Wii. He's three years post-chemo, so we can do a lot of this stuff without pulling IV's around."
Sunday's Spikes game was the first of four Thon Nights Out for Thon 2010, Elyse Adams, overall public relations chairperson for Thon. At least $2 of each ticket sold for the game was donated to Thon, Adams (senior-bioengineering and mechanical engineering) said.
The game kicked off with a line dance, followed by the first pitch thrown by six children of Four Diamonds families.
Sunday was Isabella Messina's second time throwing the first pitch at a Spikes game, her mother Renee Messina, an instructor in kinesiology, said. Isabella Messina was diagnosed with leukemia at 20 months old, Renee Messina said.
"We come out to a Spikes game every once in a while," she said. "It's a big deal for the kids to be able to go out there."
Isabella Messina relapsed and received a bone marrow transplant in 2006. Renee Messina said Thon has provided an enormous amount of support for the family.
"It's really sort of unexplainable," she said. "It's a big deal for our family."
Adams said she particularly enjoyed seeing the children out on the field, throwing the first pitch.
"It's nice because with most charities and philanthropies you don't really have a face to the name," she said.
Tom Coyle, a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, said he and his fraternity brothers attended the Spikes game so they could help support Thon.
"We were born to support Thon," he said, laughing. "When we heard that proceeds go to Thon, that was our number one motivation."
Coyle (junior-accounting) said his favorite moment in the game was also the first pitch thrown by the children.
"It's always nice when you know that's a Thon kid," he said. "Just going out and doing something he wouldn't normally be able to do."
