Penn State College of Communications comMedia

It started with an energetic crowd at 6 p.m. Friday. The floor and seats at the Bryce Jordan Center were jam-packed with exhausted, but determined people by the time the final fund-raising total of $7,490,133.87 was announced late Sunday afternoon.

The student organized fund-raiser collected more than $6 million last year. It features a kaleidoscope of activities, including a pep rally featuring student athletes, live bands, squirt guns and a unique line dance created each year just for Thon. For a magical weekend the Bryce Jordan Center is filled with fascinating characters. Here are some of their stories:

Just another endurance test for Mary

Triathlete Mary Waechter is a member of the Penn State club cross country team. She has a reputation for training hard and overcoming adversity. With varsity athletes discouraged from participating in Thon, she may well have been one of the best conditioned people on the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center -- and it was apparent as she shook off fatigue to watch the unveiling of the final fund-raising totals before heading home for a well-deserved rest.

-- By Alexa Keeley

Rubbing out dancers' pain

Thon organizers try to reduce the fatigue endured by dancers as they spend 46 hours on their feet. One of their strategies is to team up with the Central Pennsylvania School of Massage to give dancers early morning (or late night) massages. We accompanied Melissa Lenox during her 10-minute massage.

-- By Davis Shaver

The Kappas step up their presence at Thon

Bryant Poland attended Thon to support his fraternity brothers, Austin Miller and Anthony Estes, who were dancing for Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. The Kappas also performed at Thon on Sunday.

-- By Stephanie Raposo

Preserving Thon memories

Mike Koslap helps shoot the souvenir DVD for Thon. Fans of Thon may know his work from the inspirational YouTube videos "Don't Waste One Minute" and the "This We Believe."

-- By William Colsher

Mail call for the kids

The Bryce Jordan Center becomes a small city for the 46 hours of Thon, complete with clean-up crews, rules enforcers and its own postal service. Mail call is an especially effective tool to boost the spirits of exhausted dancers who are staying on their feet to raise money to benefit the families of children with pediatric cancer.

Many of those Four Diamonds kids are at Thon, too. They get a lot of special attention, including their own mail call.

-- By Tamara Conrad

Strong shoulders

Tanner Allen is a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Usually his role at Thon is to cheer on his fraternity brothers who are dancing. This year Max Kirby, the Thon child sponsored by Sigma Phi Epsilon, decided to give Allen a new purpose -- atop Tanner's shoulders Max is riding through Thon.

-- By Michael Barasch

Icers dance to third weekend victory

Clad in full-body penguin costumes, the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers hockey team took to the THON stage late last night during the athlete hour pep rally. Once there, the Icers competed against Penn State's other athletic teams in a dance competition -- and despite having playing in and winning two games since THON began, the Icers won the dancer-judged competition in overwhelming fashion.

The Icers had been planning their dance for weeks prior to the pep rally, and thanks in part to back-up goalie John Jay's choreography, which saw the Icers mix their THON-assigned Disney theme (Happy Feet) with popular hip-hop dance moves, the crowd roared with approval.

The following is an inside look at how and why their dance came together.

-- By Dean Myers

Enforcing the rules

Channing Hargrove is a part of the Rules and Regulations committee at Thon. On only a few hours of sleep, she must be alert and prepared. As a part of Rules and Regulations Hargrove must stand firm. Sometimes she even has to do some things she feels bad doing. She will continue to do them, however, because it's a part of what keeps Thon going every year till the end.

Next year, she hopes to be involved with the communications aspect of Thon.

-- By Kristina Cosma

The Collegian's video producer

As of 2 a.m. today, the Daily Collegian has posted a dozen videos as part of its comprehensive coverage of Thon. Ben Roth, the daily student newspaper's video producer has put in 24 hours on the job, only 32 hours into the event. Last year, Roth worked for the Collegian as a still photographer. Now, video editing is his new adventure. In addition to the visual elements, he has to pay special consideration to audio while supervising as many as a half dozen people at a time.

-- By Adam Clair

The communications captain

Amberly Scheidt worked a 5-hour shift Saturday as a communications captain for THON 2009. Scheidt is one of more than 20 captains working for the overall communications chairperson. She and a co-captain were responsible for their own team of 27 volunteers Saturday.

Scheidt said the highlight of her shift was helping a tour group of faculty members visit the dance floor and learn the line dance. She also oversaw information desk staffing, the lost and found booth, and provided a tour for a family who helped with THON fundraising.

-- By Amanda Yeager

The NAACP Thon family

This year, the Penn State Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) adopted a Thon family for the first time this year. However, according to Gladys Hall, the group's Thon Chair, the first family they were assigned to, a Caucasian family, declined to work with the group.

NAACP was assigned a second family, the Woodmans, whose 4-year-old son Makhai has a rare form of neurological cancer. They have developed a close relationship in the weeks leading up to Thon. The family and members of NAACP speak weekly by phone and made a trip together to Chuck E. Cheese withMakhai.

Throughout Thon weekend, the group has accompanied the family on the dance floor, and Makhai and his 9-year-old sister Ciara especially enjoyed going into the "No Grownups Allowed Room."

-- By Arianna Davis

Thon: Hour 13

As the sun rises on the first full day of Thon 2009, most dancers show no signs of slowing. Sophomores Mary Dowd and Steve Leibfreid exude giddy enthusiasm for the remaining 33 hours, in which they'll have to remain on their feet.

-- By Adam Eshleman

Learning the line dance

Danielle Adams, 2009 Thon line dance coordinator, explains some of what goes into creating the line dance for Thon each year. It is a time-consuming task that takes hours of planning, including putting together the lyrics and cultural references.

-- By Katharine Lackey

Feeding the masses

Jim Carty, a junior studying hotel, restaurant and institutional management, coordinated food and beverages for the first meal served at Thon on Friday. Carty led 40 student volunteers who prepared and served 400 pounds of pasta to more than 700 dancers.

-- By Angela Haupt

Early pictures

This click-through gallery contains images from the first hour of Thon. For more pictures, go to the photojournalism/singles gallery.

-- By Davis Shaver

Thon prep

Students wait outside the Bryce Jordan Center for the start of Thon 2009.

-- By Davis Shaver

International impact

Thon has an impact far beyond Happy Valley -- in this case, all the way to Israel.

-- By Michael Barasch

Getting ready

Becky Scull and the Sigma dance team prepare for Thon.

-- By Amanda Yeager

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