As I’m certain every Penn State Student knows, the first canning weekend of THON 2015 fundraising season just passed. Springfield, the THON organization that I’m a part of, achieved huge success, breaking all previous whole-weekend records by Saturday evening. I anxiously await the “big reveal” of our whole-weekend total, which should be out sometime this week.
From what I’ve heard, other THON orgs experienced similar success this weekend. I know that, like us, many of them sent canners out before sunrise to claim corners. As we drove through my hometown at 5:45 a.m. Saturday morning, I saw PSU students in neon tutus and nittany lion ski hats at almost every intersection.
From what I’ve heard, other THON orgs experienced similar success this weekend. I know that, like us, many of them sent canners out before sunrise to claim corners. As we drove through my hometown at 5:45 a.m. Saturday morning, I saw PSU students in neon tutus and nittany lion ski hats at almost every intersection.
A few of them (members of Atlas in particular) were sitting on the corners at which my group had intended to can on Saturday. Now, I must say, it’s a little defeating to get up at 5:30 a.m. only to find that someone else beat you to your spot, especially when that spot is one of the most ideal canning locations in the area. As we pulled up to the main intersection in New Hope, we say drowsy kids in fuzzy pink hats (characteristic of Atlas) lounging on all four corners. We ended up driving around looking for a new location until 8:30. Rest assured, we found a pretty good one. Throughout the whole process, my trip leader remained remarkably peppy (especially considering what time it was). When I expressed my frustration at getting beaten out to my trip leader, she replied calmly, “it’s all FTK.”
Something that amazed me when I first started shopping around for a THON org to join was that the officers of the groups never tried to persuade you to join their org by talking down on other orgs. Rather, they simply focused on what made theirs super fun and exciting. I’m used to the competitive nature of high school cliques and sports team recruiters, so realizing that this was not a part of this system was both surprising and relieving. So many of the same kids are looking at all these groups, yet they refuse to talk smack.
Really, the noncompetitive nature of THON orgs makes sense. Sure, they’d each like to have the highest total at the end of fundraising season for pride purposes, but really, we’re all out freezing out butts off before the crack of dawn for the same reason: FTK.
It’s a beautiful thing that so many people come together so passionately for one single cause. While a little friendly competition is perfectly civic, working together and appreciating each other’s efforts is even more so. Through the collaboration and support of thousands of people in all different orgs that contribute the THON, the event has become as successful as it is today. It’s a perfect example of how effective communication and teamwork can be used to attain an even greater good.
It’s refreshing to hear that your trip leader put the kids ahead of the competition. One of my concerns about THON organizations was that people had other motives for joining other than their passion for helping kids, but between your post and Sam’s about people from other THON organizations donating to his organization’s bake sale, I am convinced that people really do care about just raising as much money as possible for the kids.
I made a lot of the same observations that you did as I was searching for a THON org to join as well. I think the whole FTK attitude is so amazing. The competition between organizations is definitely a good thing because it fuels each group do be better. However, as Phebe mentioned above, it can get a little bit cut throat sometimes. I am a member of Apollo, and during our first canning trip, someone in another house was improperly canning on a median. Someone in another THON org was driving by and covertly took a picture of them, and then promptly sent it to the Rules and Regulations committee without ever even approaching the members of Apollo (which is what you are supposed to do). As a result, 5%, or around $3000 was discredited from our organization. Obviously safety was most important when canning, but it was definitely hurtful to know that someone would purposefully (and rather dishonestly in my opinion) make us lose money that we worked for. In my opinion, that is not very FTK.
See I am not in a THON org but a couple of my really close friends are in Apollo and they mentioned how they were on a median for two seconds and a girl out of no where came up to them and told them to watch their backs. This resulted in Apollo losing some of their funds. I would love to think that it is FTK but some people I believe have exterior motives.