On Friday, Feb. 8, Abington Senior High School held its sixth annual mini-THON fundraiser. The eight-hour, all-standing event raises proceeds and awareness to benefit pediatric cancer treatment. The inability to sit down for the duration of the event is so that, for just a short bit of time, students are able to feel the discomfort that cancer patients experience at all times.
Mini-THON is a spin-off of the main THON fundraising event, held annually at The Pennsylvania State University. This year, THON will be held Feb. 15-17, when for 46 hours, volunteers give kids and their families the opportunity to forget about their cancer diagnosis while 700+ students are recognized as dancers and stand on their feet for the entirety of the weekend.
To help kick off the Senior High mini-THON, students from Penn State Abington stopped by the gymnasium to address the crowd and share words of encouragement. Nearly 300 students from the Senior and Junior High (grades 9-12) participate each year, which consists of multiple activities including a choreographed dance routine, sporting events like pillow polo and ping-pong, a lip-sync contest, and “Family Hour,” where families who have been personally affected by childhood cancer come and share their stories with the students.
This year, Family Hour hit close to home as the two families being honored were Abington School District families, including the Lindley family, whose second-grader Cadence made news late last year for her cancer being in remission and her Roslyn Elementary School classmates welcoming her home from her 100 days at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. At mini-THON, Cadence’s family attended to share her cancer journey and help put a face to what is the true purpose of the event.
In addition, for the first time ever, Roslyn Elementary School joined in on the fun. Not only did students attend the mini-THON Family Hour, but in support of their classmates, they also organized a “For the Kids Friday,” which was a spirit day held during school. Each grade level wore a different color shirt like the Senior High students do every year, and Roslyn kids were asked to each donate 25 cents to the cause. To help raise even more funds, earlier in the day student council members at Roslyn sold pediatric cancer bracelets and buttons, as well as fruit smoothies. At the end of the school day, each grade took a picture outside spelling out the abbreviation “FTK,” which stands for “For the Kids,” the slogan of THON.
When mini-THON concluded at the Senior High on Friday night, the total amount raised by Abington Schools “for the kids” was revealed, totaling $54,997.19. All money raised at the Abington Senior High School mini-THON and the main event at State College is donated directly to the Four Diamonds Fund, which operates out of the Hershey Medical Center. The funds are used to help offset the costs of treatment for families undergoing pediatric cancer and to promote further research of this horrific disease.