Students in step
Local high-schoolers dance in 10-hour
marathon to raise money for battle against cancer.
Dancing and singing in the donations to support Penn State Fayette’s effort to raise funds to help battle cancer, 30 students from Belle Vernon Area and Jefferson-Morgan high schools were the main attraction Saturday on the east wing of the Uniontown Mall. At the third annual Mini-THON, the 10-hour high school version of Penn State’s 48-hour THON, students and alumni of Penn State also were in attendance to serve as advisors to the teams.
“Our goal to reach by 8 o’clock tonight is to fill the diamond, raising $5,000 if not more,” said Beth Tom, chairwoman for the THON team at Penn State Fayette. “All participating dancers had to raise $100 to participate, but a lot of them raised more.”
Five dancers from Belle Vernon Area and Jefferson-Morgan had confidence that they would make it through the 10 hours of dancing.
“It makes you feel good knowing that you’re doing something for the charity,” said Jefferson-Morgan junior Jessica Johnston.
Belle Vernon Area senior Megan Myers agreed: “The pain goes away after you see the families.”
Hayley Cratty, a junior from Jefferson-Morgan, said that she is even brave enough to one day try the 48-hour THON.
On the sidelines of the stage, Rodger and Deneise Fultz of Middlesburg watched their daughter Tawny with joy and admiration as she sang “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” as a part of the Mini-THON’s karaoke activity.
The Fultzes credit the THONs and other Penn State-sponsored fund-raising activities for assistance in assisting their daughter, a cancer sufferer, with care but more importantly for allowing her to form lasting friendships with many college and high school-age students.
“She wouldn’t be up there dancing and singing if it wasn’t for the other kids,” said Rodger Fultz.
“She has made a lot of friends,” Deneise said.
Rodger and Deneise said that Tawny may even attend Penn State.
Sixteen-year-old Tawny was diagnosed in July with cancer of the lymph nodes. According to her parents, the good news was that the cancer was caught in its very early stages, and now doctors say Tawny has a 95 percent chance to be cured.
“It was at a point in our life when we needed support,” Rodger Fultz said. “Seven months later we were introduced to the foundation and received so much support. This is really a great thing that these kids are doing.”
After a social worker introduced the Fultzes to the Four Diamond Foundation, a charity providing services to children and adolescents with cancer, and the programs they provide, Tawny was invited to attend functions such as THON. At these events, she met the students of Penn State and area high schools who are working to support Four Diamonds and express their belief in its cause.
Although the Fultzes drove almost four hours to arrive at the Uniontown Mall for the Mini-THON, Tawny and her brother Jacob enjoyed themselves by singing and dancing the afternoon away, while their parents enjoyed watching them.
With the Mini-THON’s good start, Penn State Fayette THON team advisor and past participant Chad Long said the local campus again will raise the most money out of the 20 Penn State branch campuses statewide.
“Last year we raised $3.6 million,” said Long. “It is an honor in knowing that we are one of the poorest counties, but we raise so much more than all the other schools in larger cities whose residents have more money.
“That goes to show that they may have more money, but we have bigger hearts.”
Long said the event began five years ago when he and a few more students decided to raise $1,000 for the charity.
“We raised that in a month,” said Long. “It just snowballed from there. It’s just amazing how much you can raise. We just got so excited about it. The event grew larger and larger each year.”