COMMUNITY EVENTS DRAW 250 SUPPORTERS
Burrell Bucs “Dance for a Cure”
Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church Hosts Pasta Feast
More than 250 people from the community participated recently in two Penn State New Kensington fundraisers for pediatric cancer research.
The off-campus events—Burrell Bucs Dance for a Cure and Spaghetti Dinner—brought in $6,288 for THON, formally known as the Penn State Interfraternity Council/ Panhellenic Dance Marathon. The 46-hour, no sitting, no sleeping marathon in February at Penn State University Park raises money for the Four Diamonds Fund at the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.
Kelsie Nury, a sophomore in the Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management program, is the THON chair for the New Kensington campus. She has set a goal of $55,000, which would be the campus' high water mark.
The Bucs dance featured students from Burrell High School conducting a mini-THON. The students collected money for two months, and announced the total Nov. 17 after a night of bogeying. Eighty participants stayed on the dance floor from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. and raised $4,353.
The spaghetti supper attracted 180 diners Nov. 18 to the Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. The eat-in or take-out pasta feast raised $1,935.
Over the next three months, campus students will be hosting various events, including Pie Your Professor, to raise money for what is believed to be the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. THON is a University-wide event that is scheduled for Friday-Sunday, Feb. 15-17, at the Bryce Jordan Center.
A year ago, Nury, a graduate of Burrell High School, represented the campus as a dancer at the marathon event and helped raise $50,437, second best total in campus history. The $52,000 in 2011 total is the campus standard. In the past three years, the New Kensington THON committee has collected more than $122,000 to support pediatric cancer patients, families and researchers. Since 2002, the total is $216,000.
For information on upcoming campus THON events, contact Lauren Blum at 724-334-6063 or ldb14@psu.edu via email.