This year the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) took a leadership role in THON 2010. To see the students at Penn State so actively involved in philanthropy is extremely heartening.
Anyone concerned about “the apathy of today’s undergraduate students” need only venture into the Bryce Jordan Center on THON weekend to learn about dedication, ethical leadership and compassion.
THON is the largest student run philanthropic initiative in the world, having raised $61 million for the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children’s Hospital to fight pediatric cancer. This year they raised over 7.8 million dollars.
The LAUC had two dancers, Lauren Perrotti and Chrissy Boggs. To hear them talk about THON, how they prepared, and what it means to them to participate, listen to them on LAUSRadio episode 3.
The LAUC covered the event on their blog with updates about THON from the Bryce Jordan Center this weekend.
Also, you can read the account Chrissy Boggs gives of the LAUC canning efforts to raise money for THON in Scranton, PA earlier this year.
Visit THON.org to learn more about this very special event.
Christopher P. Long says
You’re right, Sam, that the social media dimension of THON this year was striking.
Onward State covered that original moment when THON started trending world-wide after Khloe Kardashian tweeted it out to her 900,000 followers.
Read THON PR’s Big Day on Onward State.
I think what you say about connectivity is important. I know I am more in touch with student activities, at least the activities of those student leaders who tweet, than I have ever been because of twitter. But, you are also right to suggest that connectivity is only part of the issue.
We need to think about the connection this connectivity makes possible: be it to contribute to a cause, enter into a discussion, respond to an idea, join a group, or comfort a friend. Those are the real moments where community begins. Those are the moments that establish real connection, as opposed to mere connectivity. Genuine transformation, be it of the individual or the society more generally, happen in those moments of connection.
Twitter, Google Buzz and other such technologies are powerful because they are paths that lead us to one another in ways that open the possibility of transformative action.
This past weekend at THON, we witnessed the power of such action … to the tune of $7.8 million.
Sam Loewner says
Chris –
I think we’d be missing a major point about this whole event if we didn’t note the “new media” aspect that we saw more this year than ever before.
THON is decades old. There was a time when students raised money solely by interpersonal interactions and, when lucky, by postal mail. How much things have changed!
I’m particularly interested in how Facebook and Twitter were used this year. Those aren’t media where in depth discussions about right and wrong occur (at least not usually). They aren’t places for literal interaction, most times. But they are tools for connectivity, and in the world of philanthropy, what’s more important than connectivity? There was a column – I can’t find it now, but it was in the Harrisburg paper – about how Facebook has created a whole new world and community at the post-secondary level. That new community is geared to support things like THON – events that encompass such a range of people.
What’s more, the Twitter trends are astounding. During canning, #THON trended on twitter. Then – that wasn’t enough – it began to trend again during the weekend itself. I haven’t seen the data, but to trend worldwide is no easy feat. I’d presume that around a quarter of a percent of all tweets were about THON for it to sustain those trends for that time. Though less than 1 of every hundred tweets, it’s still an astounding figure, right?
The implications are pretty important. I can’t speculate on all of them, but I’d say that all signs point towards a time, at least a temporary one, where the word about THON isn’t spread by people on street corners or even emails sent. It’s a world where people are connected to people they barely know (I can say with confidence that I’ve never met Khloe Kardashian, and I suspect most people who read her tweets about THON haven’t met her either). And a world where those connections spread ideas that we would never ever have otherwise.
To distill it: Few people have met Kardashian, but many follow her on Twitter. Few people have ever heard of THON. But, when the many followers of Kardashian picked up on her tweets, many people knew about THON. Some donated, too. That, I think, is the direction we’re headed in. THON just happened to get there before most of us.