A start of a new year brings new changes. This year, there will be a change in how the annual fundraising event, Mini-THON, is run. It will now be run by high school students and will no longer be held at Park Forest Middle School.  In previous years, the fundraising event was held at Park Forest Middle School with the middle schoolers being the dancers. According to sophomore Carene Olsen, “The high school is now part of Mini-THON because there was no longer an opportunity to hold the event at the middle schools due to reasons beyond our control.” School students now in high school would be involved as returning alumni. Since the event is now being run by high school students we can expect new changes to come. “Mini-THON will be student-run this year, so they will be responsible for the planning and implementation of the event in all aspects.  Faculty advisers will be there to support the students running the event and facilitate communication with those inside/outside of the school,” the adviser Jacob Smith said. Teachers ran the event at the middle school because middle school students couldn’t drive which prevented them from easily contacting businesses. This year however, the students want to be the ones to take the lead and organize the event with little faculty help.

THON is a fundraising event that works with the Four Diamonds to fight and conquer childhood cancer. Penn State holds THON annually which is a 46 hour dance marathon that takes place every February. While Mini-THON is in the springtime and dances for a shorter time period. Many schools worldwide work hard every year to earn as much money as they can to donate to Penn State Hershey. Just last year they were able to earn $6.46 million for Four Diamonds research!

There is also one more major change due to the event being more high school oriented. Senior Carrie Little, the executive director described the new changes,” It will be Friday April 27th and registration will be from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. The reveal will be at ten instead of midnight since we have to accommodate people with junior licenses here because they can’t drive past eleven.” Since many of the high school students participating will be driving themselves and many have junior licenses, the event must end earlier so that no student get in trouble and everyone gets home safely. The fundraiser will be at the new (air conditioned) high school, but a specified location has yet to be announced. Everyone is eagerly anticipating this year’s fundraiser so be sure to sign up. Whether you’re a dancer or volunteer, this will be an event that you do not want to miss!