The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, commonly referred to as THON, is a two-day Dance Marathon that takes place every February at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, United States with the purpose of raising money to combat pediatric cancer. It was started in 1973 by the university's Interfraternity Council, and in its first year, more than $2,000 was raised, with 39 couples dancing for 30 hours straight. Today, it is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, by involvement and revenue with $10,686,924.83 having been raised at the 2012 event. The money that is raised is donated to The Four Diamonds Fund, a charity devoted to defeating pediatric cancer through research and caring for patients at the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital. More than 15,000 students get involved in the event each year, organizing it and raising funds with the rallying cry, "FOR THE KIDS!".
Read more about Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon: History, Events Throughout The Year, THON Weekend, Student Involvement, Committees
Famous quotes containing the words penn, state, dance and/or marathon:
“Later you hear it wander the dark house
Like a mother who rises at night to seek a childhood picture;
Or it goes to the backyard and stands like an old horse cold in the
pasture.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“It is said that he once had a sore toe that so annoyed him that he went to the woodpile and chopped it off with an axe, quoting the Scripture, ‘If thy foot offend thee, cut it off.’”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The author’s conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“The mountains look on Marathon—
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dreamed that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians’ grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)