Posted on 02/21/2012 4:20:43 PM PST by FlJoePa
You won't read about this in many of the papers or see stories about it on espn or cnn. There weren't news vans lining the streets of State College last weekend, but THIS is the real Penn State - the one that just raised nearly $10.7 million FTK (For The Kids).
For 40 years the students at Penn State have organized and run a dance marathon. Since the late 70's, it has solely benefited the Four Diamonds Fund at Hershey Medical Center. Four Diamonds' goal is to simply eradicate childhood cancer, while providing superior care, comprehensive support, and innovative research.
Thon (as it's called) is a year round fundraising effort by the students (it is 100% student run) that culminates at the Jordan Center where students join with Four Diamonds children to celebrate the successes, mourn the losses, and focus on the future.
It takes over 15,000 student volunteers to pull this off with over 700 dancers staying on their feet for 46 straight hours. It is by leaps and bounds the largest student run philanthropy in the world and is a source of tremendous pride in our University.
At 2:50 you see a student playfully remove a little girl's ski cap to show a beautiful blonde head of hair. A lot of the now cancer free kids that come back choose to wear hats so those children who don't have their hair due to treatments won't feel so out of place.
This is just 5 seconds of the video that largely will go unnoticed, but I pointed it out to show the true love and devotion that is in that building on THON weekend. It is real. It is tangible. It is an intense love, and no one can ever take that away. Ever.
The students motto is that someday they will dance in celebration of a cure. Until that day comes, they will continue to dance for a cure.
The school’s cover-up nullified any good doing.
This is the best you Penn State Kiddie-molesting, gay-pride loving, global-warming pushing stooges can come up with?
I'll give you a hint: Remember how Obama pushed "WTF"?
Remember how that acronym got served back in his face?
Now look at "FTK", think of what happened under Paterno, and think carefully about what those three letters could stand for....
Any negative comments here for this event are just idiots. This is wonderful.
And two Freepers had the cohonas to criticize them. Disgusting.
Read the damn post and read what they are doing and how long they have been doing it.
" Four Diamonds' goal is to simply eradicate childhood cancer, while providing superior care, comprehensive support, and innovative research"
I have personal involvement with this effort. The Four Diamonds has less than 4% going to admin costs.
My niece and her husband were expecting triplets, not via in vitro or fertility drugs BTW, just old fashioned egg splitting ; ) ,
It was an extremely high risk pregnancy for several reasons not just because they were multiples, so much so that her first OBY (BTW, not affiliated with Penn State but a much smaller local hospital) told her she should would probably die if she went through with “it” and therefore should have an abortion or at least a “selective reduction” (and isn’t that a “nice” term for killing babies).
That’s when she and her husband found a high risk OBY through Penn State. He (a Penn State Grade himself) told her outright that the other doc didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground and probably was scared to deliver because he didn’, and although not without risk, told her that the chances were good that with help and support and proper care, and given advances in neonatal care and the excellent facility at PSMSHMC, she could deliver and her babies had an excellent chance to survive.
She spent the last two months of her pregnancy at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center high risk OBY ward on close monitoring. I visited her many times and was very impressed by not only the facility and care, but the genuine kindness and compassion of those taking care of her. She delivered three beautiful little girls who will turn 4 years old next month. Born at 32 weeks via what was supposed to be a planned C-Section but ended up being an emergency C-Section when she went into labor the day before, the girls spent their first month in the NICU. One of the girls had a heart valve problem and was touch and go for a time, but it was diagnosed and treated early. They all came home healthy and are thriving today. They have been back twice for the NICU “family” reunions and the nurses and doctors are so thrilled to see all the kids and their parents again.
Every year since, I’ve made a modest donation to the NICU and high risk OBY center and will continue to do so.
Contrary to what some say, the actions of a sick and cowardly few (that IMO need to be held accountable) are not representative of all Penn State students, alums, faculty and affiliated organizations, in fact most are not.
It’s nice that they’re doing this, but it doesn’t remove the enormous stain that has befallen Penn State. Maybe in 100 years they can lay claim to their former greatness, but until then Penn State will be known as the university that looked the other way while boys were being violated. Sorry.
Not exactly.
WPVI, KYW TV, WTXF from Philadelphia all had reporters out there. I'd imagine it was much the same from other PA cities.
Don't play the victim card. It seems like a nice, if odd, thing the kids out there were doing, but it's not like they only get negative coverage.
Sure, blame the students that want to help cure cancer.
Shees
Go ahead, stick your head in the sand, and keep telling yourself everything’s OK. Hope that works for you.
Thanks for posting this. Of course, I’m not surprised to see some posters running as fast as they can to see who can “out-sanctimony” everyone else on the thread. Bottom lineis, those of us who have a real awareness of PSU recognize that Thon is far more representative of the university than Jerry Sandusky.
However, this time you are dead wrong.
Most kids that participated in this event don't give a damn about Gerry whats his name or how Jo screwed up.
They were out there to support an event bigger than any football game or sport.......... They were there to help support stopping and helping Kids cancer. Your a good person. Don't know how your bias is getting into this subject.
I saw these kids on TV here in Hershey. They could give a rats ass about the other politics. Just proud of them here.
Good for them. It doesn’t make up for Joe Paterno covering up child rape though
Why is it an “odd” thing the students are doing? They’ve been doing it for 40 years. FIFTEEN THOUSAND students work on this year round. It literally never stops.
It “seems” like a nice thing they are doing??? They just raised nearly $11 million for pediatric cancer. I think that passes the threshold of “seems”, doesn’t it?
You and the other detractors can say whatever you want about me or my University and you can paint me, and my fellow alums and students with the broadest brush you care to use - I don’t really care.
But do me two little favors. One, give credit to the students. Two, put your money where your mouth is and donate to the best local pediatric cancer ward/research center/hospital that you can find.
You do those two things and you can call me Sally and tell everyone I voted for 0bama. I don’t flippin’ care, and neither do the kids and their families that will benefit.
Dancing for 46 straight hours doesn't strike you as odd? Really?
What in the hell is the point in that? Is there really anyone why wouldn't give money if it was only 18 hours, or ten, or just a pep rally? That's just a bizarre thing to do. That's just trying to call attention to yourself, not a selfless act for others.
I already give a lot of money to Crohns and Colitis, several charities fighting birth defects and Parkinson's diseases, giving to a certain cause doesn't make you special.
That's the unfortunate thing about Penn State alum, they've so bought into the myth of the pristine, holier than thou image that the school projects, but most of us who are familiar with the program, knew was false.
But the original point remains: You claim that there wasn't any news coverage, and you were dead wrong. I knew it because the 10 o'clock news covered it WAY too long, and the 11 o'clock news, ABC, covered it in excess and when we switched channels to KYW, they were covering it too.
Penn State still gets the fawning coverage overlooking the criminality of it's football program, and it's truly shameful administration and "professors". Stop being a victim and cut the pity party, what happened, happend. That's history.
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