"Blue, White raise it up..go THON...beat cancer!"

THON weekend...here and gone. For those of you that don't know, the Penn State Dance Marathon ("THON") is the largest student-run philanthropic event in the United States. It is a 46-hour dance marathon to celebrate the raising of funds to contribute to the Four Diamonds Pediatric Cancer Fund affiliated with the Hershey Medical Center.

Phi Gamma Nu was announced as (once again) one of the top 5 organizations to raise the most money (over $71,000). The better knews is the grand total...yet another record high!!!!

We had 6 dancers (3 pairs of 2) who stay on the floor, without sleep, on their feet the entire time for the 46 hours. I'm so proud of all of them...they all did great!

Meanwhile, I was in the stands of the Brice Jordan Center with the rest of Phi Gamma Nu and the pledges (who made an AMAZING banner to represent!)...dancing like crazy and supporting our dancers! Not only was there fun dancing and entertainment, but every hour we got to do the "line dance." Every year, THON has a theme..this year's being "Dream Forward" and there is a line dance to go along with that. It also incorporates popular events that have happened in the last year. Click here to watch it! One of my favorite parts, is when we throw our hands in the air in the shape of the four diamonds.



I wish I could explain just how proud I am to have been able to contribute to such a large donation. But being able to see all of the families and hearing their stories of lost children and cured children is a life-changing experience. It also hits home even more for myself because we (PGN) just lost one of our THON children. Gavin was a new addition to our THON family, but unfortunately passed a few weeks ago. We did get to spend time with is family, who were helped a lot by being a part of THON and also our two other families.

I look forward to spending another year preparing for THON 2010 by standing on streets with cans raising money, writing letters to friends and family for donations, calling alumni for help and especially getting to know our THON families even more!

For more info about THON, visit THON.ORG

"Success is Sweet"

I just (literally 5 minutes ago) interviewed with Hershey Entertainment & Resorts for their summer Food and Beverage internship. I'm very excited because I think that the interview went very well. For once, I had a great answer to every question and felt confident with all of my answers. If only I had the ability to read the infamous Human Resources poker face. In a few weeks, I'll know the result..1st week of March!

Updates

Classes are still going smoothly and seem fairly easy (knock on wood). But most importantly, I'm no longer a "new member" of my b-frat! We picked our new pledge class--Alpha Rho's. From what I know, they seem like some pretty cool kids. I look forward to getting to know them more..and potentially get a little (crossing my fingers)!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, when I'll be in Baltimore for some wedding planning festivities! I hope we all find some great dresses to look at/try on!

As for other interesting news in my life...(I feel like I should be 13 for what I'm about to say) I have a CRUSH! It's purely harmless, but crazy exciting. I haven't had a real "crush" in YEARS! I'm sure nothing will happen but it's still fun =)

Also, I got my hair colored yesterday and I no longer have red hair! I've been trying to get rid of it but my first attempt didn't really work...I only ended up with red hair and blond highlights. Now I'm a brunette. The bottom layer of my hair is all dark brown and then throughout the top has the same brown low-lights with a few blond highlights just to warm it up a little. So...no more red!