Friday marks an important milestone as the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon kicks off for the 45th time. Even more significant is, this year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of THON’s partnership with the Four Diamonds Fund.
I participated in my first THON in 1978, the final year in a packed HUB Ballroom. I watched students doing the line dance to the music from “Saturday Night Fever,” a hugely popular movie released only weeks earlier. Rules and Regulations Committee members were moving around the floor penalizing, and often disqualifying, dancers who failed to keep their feet moving.
When the dancing stopped Sunday at 7 p.m., the dancers collapsed to the floor. Co-chairmen Bob Bickhart and Jimmy Cefalo announced the final total — $52,800 for the Four Diamonds Fund.
The 1978 THON was modest by today’s standards, but arguably the most significant year in THON’s history. Months earlier, the Overall Committee (now known as the Executive Committee) voted unanimously to make the Four Diamonds Fund, a fledgling charity that received proceeds from the prior year’s event, its permanent beneficiary. Tragically, weeks later while on a trip to Hershey to present the check, one of those committee members, Kevin Steinberg, was killed in a car accident.
The next year we moved to the “spacious” White Building, added more dancers and nearly breaking the $100,000 mark. Fundraising commenced following the “Kick-off Dinner,” a mere 15 days prior to THON. Nearly all monies raised were by a handful of fraternity/sorority groups collecting cash and change on canning trips.
FOUR DIAMONDS FUND FOUNDERS
I first met Four Diamonds Fund founders Charles and Irma Millard while taping a documentary for my broadcast journalism class. Charles made a comment that sticks with me to this day — “When you lose a parent, you lose the memories of your past. When you lose a child, you lose the possibilities of the future.”
The Millards founded the Four Diamonds Fund in memory of their son, who died in 1972 at the age of 14. They, like many families, suffered financial challenges and wanted to set up a fund to help defray non-medical costs.
Dr. James Gerson, a pediatric oncologist at Hershey Medical Center, treated the handful of Four Diamonds Children, including a 9-year-old boy named Bobby who was battling leukemia. I was given permission to record an interview with Bobby for my documentary project, providing Gerson conducted the interview. Bobby, like so many children I have met over the years, epitomized the ‘four diamonds’ of courage, wisdom, honesty and strength.
Sadly, Bobby’s leukemia returned shortly after the interview, and months later he passed away.
FAMILY HOUR
Anyone who has never been to THON should witness the Family Hour — an emotion-filled, 60-plus minutes where families share their stories of triumph, and, for many, stories of tragedy.
You’ll hear from survivors like Aubrey Minnaugh Mora, a former Four Diamonds Child. Mora is now a 30-year-old mother giving back as a social worker at the Four Diamonds Fund. You’ll also hear gut-wrenching stories from parents whose child has lost their battle with cancer and are now “angels among us.”
The Bryce Jordan Center will be packed most of the weekend, but you can witness the Family Hour, and all 46 hours, on a live feed available at www.thon.org.
THON has grown from the HUB Ballroom to the Bryce Jordan Center, from a Greek event to a university-wide event, from a few thousand dollars a year to millions raised and from helping a handful of families to defray travel and lodging costs to making sure families never see a medical bill or spend one penny on their children’s care.
The Four Diamonds Fund is now a world-renowned organization thanks to the dedicated students at Penn State whose energy and dedication is inspired by these brave young children and their families.
Yes, the Four Diamonds Fund would not be what it is today without THON — but, clearly, THON would not be what is today without the Four Diamonds Fund.
Rob Schmidt is publisher of the Centre County Gazette and director emeritus of the Dance Marathon Alumni Interest Group
