Not cruel and selfish just not a supporter

THON, an organization that is almost sacred to much of the Penn State student population. THON is a completely student-run organization at Penn State that hundreds of students participate in every year. The university whole-heartedly supports THON, as does much of the student body. I, on the other hand, do not wholeheartedly support THON.

To make myself clear I do not believe that raising money for the Four Diamonds Fund is wrong. I think it’s an amazing accomplishment that happens every year, my issue is more surrounding the student involvement as well as politics of the organization.

I went to a high school where THON was venerated in a similar way that it is at Penn State. Every year we would have multiple class meetings explaining mini-THON and every fundraising activity, the money went to mini-THON. If you didn’t support THON in high school, you were often called cruel and selfish. Not to my surprise, I was met with similar reactions at Penn State. As soon as the first semester started all my friends had joined a THON organization and asked me why I had not joined one. I simply explained that there were other organizations I was more interested in dedicating my time to. My friends had a hard time understanding why I didn’t want to be a part of something so fundamental to the Penn State culture. To me, this is an awful reason to become so involved in something that is supposed to be all about the kids.

I didn’t seem to have many problems throughout the first semester after the initial joining of THON organizations. My friends forgot that I wasn’t involved in THON and it didn’t come up in conversation until the start of the second semester when THON was only a month away. As THON approached my friends and peers asked if I would be attending THON. I explained that I wouldn’t be because I did not agree with THON weekend or many other of its facets and I had responsibilities at home that weekend. I wasn’t surprised with the reaction I got in response; this was the same reaction I got all through high school. Most of them hinted that I was being selfish and didn’t fully understand what THON meant. Maybe I didn’t understand what THON meant to them, but I understood what it meant to me, I did not have to stand for 46 hours to realize the hardships children with cancer and their families face.

I am certainly not the only Penn State student that feels this way about THON. In a 2015 article from Onward State by Melissa McCleary, “Why I Don’t THON: Penn State Students Share Their Stories” McCleary writes about the multiple emails she received in response to an early article about the students who choose not to attend THON. Each email was from these people thanking her for giving them a voice, where they are normally stigmatized and criticized for having one. Some of the students’ reasons for not supporting THON were very similar to my own. Others were reasons that I had never experienced. Some spoke about how they needed to work on weekends in order to pay for their education, this did not allow for attendance to THON. Others wrote to McCleary about how THON leadership positions had become a sort of status symbol and had been taking away from the true reason for THON for many years. Not only these but the fact that THON pulls attention and funds away from other worthy organizations. The student who wrote to McCleary cited accepted students’ day as a prime example of THON overshadowing all other organizations. During the presentations given by current students, many of them talk a lot about THON and fail to mention any other organizations.

While I don’t disagree with the original mission statement of THON, I do have major issues with the way the organization has developed over its history. I feel that as it continues to stray from its original mission statement it will continue to gain more and more people, not in favor of the organization or people that stigmatize those who choose not to participate.