At 6 p.m. on Friday, hundreds Penn State students got on their feet, like in so many years past, to kick off THON Weekend.
But this year, the 592 students selected to be THON dancers weren’t in a packed Bryce Jordan Center as they raise money and awareness for the Four Diamonds at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital and its fight against pediatric cancer.
Instead they were at home as THON went virtual for the first time in its history because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is just an incredible feeling knowing that regardless of the fact that there might be a pandemic and everything else that’s happening in the world right now, we are still managing to support families and spread awareness of what we’re doing and also raise funds for these families as well as research,” Penn State senior and THON public relations director Sam Koon said on Friday afternoon.