Philanthropy

Thon

The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) is the world’s largest student run philanthropy in the world. THON is a year long fundraising event benefiting the Four Diamonds Fund. Located at the Penn State Children's Hospital in Hershey, PA, the fund’s ultimate goal is to find a cure for childhood cancer.

The fundraising year ends with a no sitting, no sleeping, 48 hour dance marathon held every February. Over 700 students dance in THON each year with the support of thousands of volunteers. All of the money raised for THON is donated to the Four Diamonds Fund, which not only supplies financial support, but emotional support for children and their families with pediatric cancer. Over the past 30 years, the students of THON have raised over $35 million and helped thousands of children and their families fight pediatric cancer. Last year THON raised $4,214,748.18 for the kids. This year, THON conquered the five million mark, raising $5,240,385.17 and surpassing last year's bar by over one million dollars.

This year USITT@PSU has continued involvement in THON. Though fundraising was quite difficult for our organization because weekends were eliminated due to theatre commitments, we were still able to be active participants, and raised as much as we could. We are still waiting for a final tally from THON regarding what our organization raised this year. Since we raised over $2,000 dollars last year, we were granted a dancer this year. Our dancer, Rachel, held up fantastically through all 48 hours. As long as we continue to raise money, we will secure a dancer in future THONs as well.

THON is not just about the 48 hours in the Bryce Jordan Center, it is about the months of preparation and weekends of canning in the bitter cold leading up to those amazing 48 hours all FOR THE KIDS.

For more information or to find out how to donate to the Penn State Dance Marathon, visit their website at www.thon.org.

Behind the Scenes

In 2006-2007, USITT@PSU has taken on another philanthropic venture. Our president, John Jacobsen, felt that it would benefit the future of our members to become invested in a charity that is related to our future occupations and the body agreed. Behind the Scenes is a charity that benefits ill or injured entertainment technology technicians who are otherwise unable to afford their living expenses. Behind the Scenes is sponsored by the ESTA Foundation, which was created in 2005 in order to build and support educational and charitable causes in the entertainment technology industry. Behind the Scenes gives grants to individuals in our industry who are stricken with crisis, and lessens their financial burden.

Behind the Scenes is attempting to raise a five million dollar endowment that should be able to help many industry members in the future. USITT@PSU is proud to be part of this effort. We have attempted to raise money at all of our shows, either by simply placing a can out at concessions, or our more popular "Penny for a Pee" campaign during a production of "Urinetown." Additionally, USITT@PSU has agreed to match all public donations before they are contributed to Behind the Scenes.

Behind the Scenes is our newest charitable activity, and we are quite proud of our progress. To get more information about Behind the Scenes or to make a donation, you can visit their website at www.estafoundation.org/bts.htm.

A message from the Philanthropy Chair

I am Michelle Kokal, this year’s philanthropy chair for the Penn State student chapter of USITT.

As a group, we began fundraising for Behind the Scenes 2 years ago, thanks to the decision of John Jacobsen, our immediate past president.

Our first fundraiser took place two years ago during the performances of one of our mainstage shows – Urinetown. To anyone unfamiliar with that show, the water supply becomes so scarce that the characters are forced to pay a fee any time they want to use the bathroom. So during intermission of our performances, we had people standing outside of the restrooms with coffee cans that read “Penny for a Pee”. We also hung posters near the bathroom to let people learn more about Behind the Scenes if they wanted to.

The next fundraiser we did was the Magazine Sale through www.campusfundraiser.com. Basically, everyone went home over last Thanksgiving break and asked friends and family members if they would like to subscribe to or renew magazine subscriptions.

After the magazine sale, we put together a gift basket full of various prizes – dinner gift certificate, Penn State apparel, School of Theatre ticket vouchers, candy, etc. – and sold tickets at each of our mainstage performances. At the end of the Fall 2007 season, we pulled two names – a 1st prize winner who received the entire basket, and a 2nd prize winner who received ticket vouchers and a t-shirt.

The most recent fundraiser was at the Cold Stone creamery last month. We had a group of around eight people volunteer to work from 6:00pm to 9:00pm and the percentage of profit we earned depended on how much business we brought into Cold Stone during those three hours.

Throughout the past two years we’ve also kept a coffee can and handouts about Behind the Scenes near our concessions booth. Any time an organization takes that step to try something new, it can be somewhat scary – especially for the person in charge of those new events.

Despite the fact that each fundraising event was a new experience for just about every member of our organization, I am happy to say that everyone remained supportive and dedicated to this cause.

To my fellow members who have in any way helped me get through this past year, I cannot thank you enough. I am extremely proud of your willingness to volunteer your time and hard work, and without you, this year would have been nowhere near as successful as it has turned out. Again, I thank you.