Fighting apathy, inspiring service

From Friday, Feb. 18 to Sunday, Feb. 20, hundreds of students at Penn State danced — or at the very least stayed awake and on their feet — for 48 straight hours. The event, known as Thon, is done annually to raise money for kids with cancer. Several hundred others were challenged with the task of keeping the dancers motivated. Still others had been working throughout the school year to make sure things ran smoothly. Thousands of additional students, family and friends of the dancers filled the stands all weekend cheering them on. In all, over 10,000 students were involved in the event. They tirelessly created a fun-filled event that would celebrate the love for these suffering families and the hope for a cure.

On the final day of Thon, the beneficiaries of the weekend's efforts were recognized with thunderous applause, and they had the opportunity to thank the students on stage. When the 48 hours finally expired at 7 p.m. on Sunday, more than $4,000,000 had been collected, and the children had been able to spend time with these college students who cared deeply enough for their wellbeing to devote their time, locks of their hair and all of their energy to the children's cause. In addition, the children who had not survived long enough to witness a cure for cancer were recognized individually, and many tears of exhaustion, compassion and inspiration were shed.

It was an incredibly moving weekend, an experience that can only be fully appreciated when witnessed firsthand. While I was watching the dancers and their supporters, the children and their families and the student organizers of the entire program, I wished that everyone here at Princeton would someday have an opportunity to be touched the way I was. I barely even considered, though, that a similar event could be held here at Princeton. The idea of students here using several weekends throughout the academic year to raise money, spending countless hours preparing for a weekend's festivities and taking an entire two days from their lives and completely devoting them to a wonderful cause in place of studying, watching reruns of Family Guy or preparing for I-Banking interviews seems almost unfathomable.

The Princeton thing to do would be to write a check on the way to said interview, but the true Penn State experience was much more than an envelope filled with money. While the money that Penn State raised is fantastic and will surely impact the lives of these children, Thon was more than a fundraiser like "Crush" here at Princeton. The families in this desperate situation have found a loving extended family that consists of the other families in the program and the students at Penn State who showed how much they truly care. Instead of simply throwing money at the problem, coldly dismissing the families of cancer patients as mere statistics, the students at Penn State have embraced these children with open arms. They have pledged to remain in the picture until a viable solution has been found, until they can join together and celebrate the discovery of a cure.

This weekend at Penn State seemed inspiring enough to last a lifetime, but returning to the cold ground of this campus quickly brought my emotions back to a humbling low point. When students here at Princeton are ready to wholeheartedly confront such a challenge facing our society and personally see it through until it is resolved, I will happily join hands with those who — in the words of the Four Diamonds Fund that Thon supports — are courageous enough, wise enough, honest enough and strong enough to do so. The question I pose to our student body is: Why aren't we "embracing dreams, sharing tomorrow?" If you want to see how to really get the job done, Princeton, check out www.thon.org. Andrew Klaber is an ORFE major from Upper Saint Clair, Pa. He can be reached at aklaber@princeton.edu.