SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - With Penn State dance marathon and fundraiser THON kicking off at University Park today, Penn State Schuylkill students will be sending two dancers this year and have raised the most money in campus history.
THON is a yearlong effort to raise funds and awareness for the fight against pediatric cancer and is known as the "largest student-run philanthropy in the world."
Since 1977, it has raised more than $78 million for the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, and about 100 new families receive support each year.
Last year alone, THON's university-wide effort raised more than $9 million.
Although about 25 students from the THON committee at Schuylkill campus will be at the Bryce Jordan Center this weekend, the two dancers participating in the annual 46-hour dance marathon, lasting until Sunday, are Vincent Carrano, Pottsville, and Derek Stufflet, Philadelphia.
Carrano, 23, a freshman at Schuylkill campus, said that this year's amount raised is close to $30,000, while last year the campus raised a little more than $5,000.
He claims that their success comes from the committee recruiting about 50 students, when it had about seven to 10 last year. It has also been several years since the campus raised enough money to be considered for dancers.
The THON fundraising season starts Sept. 31 and lasts until this weekend, when 708 registered dancers must stay on their feet for the entire 46 hours.
Although it will be Carrano's first time as a student dancer at THON, he said it won't be his first time participating in the event, as he and his family have been involved over the past 17 years.
"My initial involvement was back in 1995 when my sister was diagnosed with cancer," Carrano said. "She was starting to get sick, then we took her to a family doctor and he referred us to the Hershey Medical Center, where she was diagnosed with leukemia."
His sister, Lauren, was only 7 years old at that time.
Carrano said that when his sister started to receive treatment in Hershey, representatives from the Four Diamonds Fund explained the fund to them, telling that they adopt families whose children are going through treatment, and told them all their funding comes from a dance marathon that's held at Penn State every year.
"1995 was our first dance marathon and my sister was able to attend it," Carrano said. "We pretty much went and had the time of our lives. She had the best time ever and my family continued to go."
During THON in 1996, Carrano said that he was able to attend with his family, but his mom stayed in the hospital with his sister. About a week after the dance marathon, Lauren, 9, lost her battle with cancer on Feb. 21, 1996.
"It was Lauren's favorite place, where we felt the most love and support from anyone or any group of people that we have ever encountered in our entire life," he said. "Ever since then, we've been continuing going to THON and have been a Four Diamonds family."
Graduating from Pottsville Area High School in 2007, Carrano went into the Marines, where he was stationed in North Carolina, deployed to Afghanistan for seven months, and just recently finished his four years of duty.
Since his family has been so involved with Penn State, the Four Diamonds Fund and THON, he said there wasn't even another school on his mind that he wanted to attend.
"I knew I was coming to Penn State, I knew I was going to do my time here, I knew I was going to get right involved with THON, and I wanted to do for other families, what the students at Penn State has done for my family over the past 17 years," Carrano said.
Carrano started taking classes at Penn State Schuylkill during the fall 2011 semester.
While he will be a dancer this year, Carrano has been asked to speak on Sunday during family hour, when family members stand up in front of the crowd and talk about their experience with the Four Diamonds Fund and their battle with cancer.
He said that family hour takes place during the last four hours of the 46-hour marathon, called the final four. It will include several speakers, most times including Charles Millard, who established the fund in 1972 with this wife, Irma, following the death of their son, Chris, from pediatric cancer.
The fund's name refers to The Four Diamonds, a fantasy story written by Chris shortly before his death at age 14.
There's also a celebration of life video that the family relations committee puts together all year of all the children who have passed away since the previous year, and they sing "Angels Among Us," Carrano said.
"It's just a really special and emotional hour. You get to hear amazing stories of brave, courageous children who fought cancer day in and day out for years and ended up losing their battle with cancer," he said. "I was chosen to be one of the speakers this year to tell my story about my sister."
Being able to come to Penn State and be on the other side of THON has been a full circle, Carrano said, which not many people get to do.
"The opportunity to dance, speak at family hour and let people know how amazing my sister was is just incredible," he said. "I've never even dreamed of being where I am today."
A send-off celebration for the Penn State Schuylkill dancers was held Thursday night at the Schuylkill campus.
During the party, the family that the Penn State Schuylkill THON committee is adopting was introduced, including, Trey Davis, 7, who lives about an hour away from the Schuylkill campus; and they watched the THON 2012 promotional video.
Carrano's father, John Carrano, and Tina Rose, the THON committee adviser and coordinator of student leadership, career development and community service at Penn State Schuylkill, also spoke.
John Carrano said that the students' efforts means a lot to the parents who lost children, and that he and his family went to THON for 10 years after Lauren passed away since it helped them stay together as a family.
"All the credit goes to them (the students). They did an outstanding job, going from $5,300 last year, to about $29,600," Rose said. "This whole community has just been great. They go out canning and come back with thousands of dollars. You don't have to donate your money and people are choosing to donate."
A blood drive was held by the American Red Cross at the Schuylkill campus Wednesday with $4 donated to THON on behalf of every person that gave blood.
Rose said there were about 125 people that donated, raising close to $500.