Penn State’s 46-hour THON is going digital this calendar year. College students will dance at residence.

It won’t be uncomplicated to seize the strength, enjoyable, and enthusiasm that fill the Bryce Jordan Center just one weekend every February when Pennsylvania Point out College hosts a 46-hour dance marathon referred to as THON.

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But college students say they are positive heading to check out.

For the first time in its approximately 50-yr heritage, the dance marathon will be done almost Feb. 19-21, a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The pandemic has taken a whole lot away from us as an firm in terms of just some of the issues we enjoy to do, but it has not and could by no means take absent the main reason why we perform and that is to help little ones and households impacted by childhood most cancers,” said Katie Solomon, a fifth-year senior from Lansdale, who is serving as govt director of THON this calendar year.

On a typical THON weekend, additional than 700 dancers fill the floor, and 1000’s much more learners and household users are on the floor and in the stands, cheering them on, as they increase tens of millions for pediatric most cancers research and affected individual assist. Last calendar year, THON, billed as the major pupil-operate philanthropy in the planet, gathered virtually $11.7 million. There’s nonstop rocking new music, heartfelt speeches, and dozens of scholar personnel, scurrying about to make confident dancers get all the foods and assist they need to have.

“Dancing for my Father: Penn State’s Thon unites generations ini the struggle versus pediatric cancerThis calendar year, dancers will do their dancing independently at their homes. And being awake and on their toes all 46 hrs is not the goal. They have been told to rest involving midnight and 6 a.m., provided that clinical guidance will not be on hand as it normally is at the Bryce Jordan Heart.

“Everything we are carrying out this year has security at the major of our checklist of priorities,” explained Solomon, a criminology and sociology significant.

Dancers instead will be requested to execute other problems all over the weekend, from collaborating in online games and publishing selfies to donning wacky outfits, Solomon said. THON will mail dancers assist kits in advance, such as h2o bottles and nutrition guides, she claimed. Family members of cancer individuals also will get kits and spectator guides so they can participate.

Penn State’s THON brings in approximately $11.7 million to fight pediatric cancerTHON will even now film some leisure events at the middle, both of those prerecorded and reside, but no spectators will be allowed.

“Only people who need to have to be in the making to make it transpire will be there,” Solomon said.

The function, which will zoom in on dancers at home, will be livestreamed at Thon.org/livestream.

There are fewer dancers this 12 months. About 625 are scheduled to participate, like Jackie Galang, a nursing big from Hatfield. She mentioned she and her dancing lover experienced prepared to participate right before the pandemic strike and their determination didn’t change.

“We ended up nevertheless really passionate about the mission and required to keep legitimate to THON,” she said.

Stories from the floor: How the 2020 THON unfoldedShe options to decorate her Condition University condominium with balloons, streamers, and signals and has begun making ready a music playlist.

“We’ll have an open Zoom home for persons to pop in,” she explained.

THON will even now include some of the mainstay situations, these types of as a pep rally and kids’ expertise display. New features will be added, together with a dancers’ pageant, exactly where individuals will show off their apparel and competencies, organizers mentioned.

Solomon acknowledged that it was tricky convincing people that the magic of THON could nonetheless materialize even if every person couldn’t be with each other.

“But THON isn’t any a person area,” she reported. “It’s this sensation that can be transmitted wherever.”

This year’s THON theme is Increase and Unify, reported Samantha Koon, a fifth-yr senior from Parsippany, N.J.

“It seriously speaks to how this yr has arrive with each other,” reported Koon, THON’s community relations director, who is studying for a master’s in education, concept, and plan. “This is an exertion to provide the magic of THON into everyone’s residences all over the globe.”