Members of the Penn State Gymnastics Club and THON’s Morale Committee (Party in the QSA) headed in opposite directions from Penn State Friday for another canning weekend. The two groups agreed to chronicle their trips for StateCollege.com.
For more THON coverage, go to https://www.statecollege.com/penn-state-page/thon.
Friday, January 22, 2010
4 p.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club (Written by Michael Wolski)
Nine members of the Penn State Gymnastics Club (Rachel, Ben, Cammie, Beenash, Ethan, Mollie, Marc, Alyssa, and me) signed up for this trip, and it was planned that we’d be canning near Niagara Falls, NY. Rachel lives outside of Buffalo, NY, so we stayed at her parents’ place. This was the third time canning with them, but my first time driving.
It was decided that it’d be best for us all to go at once on Friday, so we left relatively late, around 4 p.m. I had a GPS, so I led the way. It was a pretty long trip up, but I’m used to driving long distances.
8 p.m. — Party in the QSA (Written by Tyler Choura and others)
We were the last carpool to leave from State College. I picked up four other committee members around 8. We were heading to Rockville Maryland with about 33 members in seven cars.
The drive was about three and a half hours long and it consisted of my shotgun rider and me singing ‘90s pop music to stay awake. The playlist included Backstreet Boys, N’Sync, Christina Aguillera, Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child, O-Town and Jason Mraz.
9 p.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
Everyone was pretty beat and hungry when we arrived, but Rachel’s parents were prepared. They had ordered pizza and wings a little bit before we arrived. In just a few minutes after we got there, we ate. The pizza was really good, and the wings were some of the best I’ve had.
That night was pretty much a time to relax before the canning days. We all watched “The Hangover” in the basement and talked. We had three locations for canning the following day, so we decided to split people up that night. Ethan and Ben were to go to some place called the Galleria; Ben, Marc, Beenash and I were to go to an outlet mall called Fashion Outlets; Rachel, Alyssa and Cammie were going to can at the HSBC Center.
11 p.m. — Party in the QSA
I didn’t know what kind of house I was expecting, but I knew it had to be large enough to hold 33 people. The house was exactly that. The middle floor had a beautiful living room, nice kitchen and circular steps.
Everyone was in the basement because it was the largest part of the house. It had a large TV, a mini-bar that we filled with all sorts of candy and a pool table. When we arrived, a group of people were playing a game in which you name who ‘is the most likely person to [insert attribute here].” Another group was in a guest room studying for upcoming tests. Eventually, we all went to bed around 3 or 4 a.m.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
8 a.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
Rachel’s parents made us an awesome breakfast. We all drove in a line until my group had to break off and go to the outlet mall. We got there pretty early, so there were not many shoppers were around, but the customer service people were extremely helpful. They gave us a table by the food court and let us stand by the entrance near customer service.
8 a.m. — Party in the QSA
We woke up to the sound of Garrett clapping and yelling, ‘Alright ladies and gents, it’s time to do this, FTK!’
Upstairs was a plethora of cereal, bagels, fruit, cinnamon buns and coffee. We all sat down between the bar and two kitchen tables and ate all we could to store energy for the long day ahead. After breakfast, we put remaining labels on the cans that needed it.
We split up into seven cars and dropped off the groups at around 14 different spots we had registered. Each group had three to four people, three to four cans, and about two signs. My group was placed on Rockville Pike.
9 a.m. — Party in the QSA
The intersection at Rockville Pike was perfect. We were able to stand on both sides of the street and catch traffic coming opposite ways.
People were, for the most part, very polite. Many dropped change and dollars into our cans. Some even donated $5, $10, even $20.
The morning went extremely fast. After only two hours, we had to ask a nearby storeowner for plastic bags to empty our cans.
10 a.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
I stood by the entrance along with Beenash, and though we were on our feet the whole time, we had a pretty good time. When it was slow we’d talk to the ladies at the desk.
We did pretty well, but Ben and Marc did amazing at the food court. The ladies at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels even gave them free food (and Beenash and I got some afterward).
12 p.m. — Party in the QSA
My group consisted of Abbie, Andy, Katie and myself. The group decided that the only food option we could all agree on was a nice, greasy burger and fries. And just behind us happened to be a Hollywood Diner. Perfect.
We stuffed our faces with wraps, burgers and fries. Each one of us got a milkshake to go along with it, too. After a satisfying hour, it was time to get back out on the streets and do what we came for.
4 p.m. — Party in the QSA
When we got back to the house, some people were in the basement watching a movie, some were playing pool, and others were settling down to take a much-needed nap. My group, however, was curious to know how much it made. We took our cans and ran upstairs into an empty room and dumped it all out.
We started by separating the bills and stacking them in piles. After counting just the bills and realizing we made over $800 without counting the change, we gained the hopes of breaking a thousand. The change took the longest to count. The quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies really add up though. By the end, we were $50 short of a 1000. Awesome. FTK.
We couldn’t wait to see what the grand total was. When we got back downstairs, everyone else was counting their money.
5 p.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
Everyone met up at the outlets because we wanted to see the American Falls. They were only four miles away so why not? I’ve seen them twice already, but they are still an amazing sight.
After that we went back to Rachel’s house and got possibly the best dinner I’ve had in years. I figured we’d get the rest of the leftover pizza and wings, but they went all out.
We had steak, cheesy potatoes, garlic pasta, green beans, and corn. Rachel’s birthday was coming up too, so we also celebrated with cake and ice cream. I haven’t been so ‘food satisfied’ like that in a while. We counted the money in the living room and I passed out in a chair, only to be woken up so I could move downstairs to sleep.
6 p.m. — Party in the QSA
My group was sore and knew that there was a hot tub right out on the deck. We changed into our bathing suits and gathered the troops up. Some napped, some were ready for a relaxing dip in the hot tub.
The tub was meant to hold around eight comfortably, but we made it hold a lot more. We stayed in for about an hour, talking about life and ourselves. We were forced to get out when dinner was brought in by Mr. and Mrs. Klein.
9 p.m. — Party in the QSA
After dinner, we all went back downstairs for some serious bonding time. As a committee, we wanted to be close and to be there for everyone, especially THON weekend.
We talked about how THON is different than other philanthropies because you get to see the fruit of your labor not only THON weekend when you see the kids, hear the stories, and get to witness miracles before your eyes, but also during the year as students involved reach out to families to make all the children smile as much as possible.
For some more team bonding, everyone was required to bring an object that was special to them. We went around in a circle and shared what the object was and why it was important.
After all the serious notes, we decided to lighten the mood. We wrote a paragraph based on questions that our team ‘dad’ and ‘mom’ had sent out. These questions included: favorite thing to do at PSU, best pick-up line, what TV show character you are, and what age would you want to be forever and why. None of us wrote our name on the paragraphs, and as “dad” read them aloud we all guessed who it was.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
9 a.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
We all woke up at the same time again so we could try for more money at the outlets. Rachel’s parents again made an awesome breakfast and we left a little later than the day before.
By the way, I just want to mention that her parents were awesome. They were extremely nice, hospitable, and made incredible food. I would love to go back there next year to can.
9 a.m. — Party in the QSA
Sunday really was a mix of times. Some of us got up at 7 a.m. to leave, and others didn’t leave until the afternoon. Overall, canning weekend was phenomenal, and we had a great time.
11 a.m. — Penn State Gymnastics Club
We were all at the outlets now, but we had both of our same spots. Though I guess we mixed up our times because the stores opened up at 11 a.m. and we spent the first hour wandering around. We stayed until about 1 p.m. and had a pretty good turnout for it being a Sunday.
Even for it being a short time, we were all beat again and left directly from the mall to come back to State College. This time the drive was pretty terrible because it rained the entire trip and I was really tired. Despite that, we made it back safely.
