TOWAMENCIN- It was a tiring but successful night for 280 North Penn students as they stayed on their feet from 6PM-6AM at North Penn High School’s third annual Mini-THON. Mini-THON, a smaller version of Penn State’s THON, raises money for Four Diamonds, whose mission is to conquer childhood cancer. This year, North Penn raised $42,719.08, surpassing their goal of $42,000, to donate to Four Diamonds.

Four Diamonds was founded in 1972 after 14 year old Christopher Millard lost to his battle with cancer. Shortly before he died,  he wrote a story about a knight who sought out the four diamonds of courage, wisdom, honesty and strength, thus creating Four Diamonds. In 1977, Four Diamonds partnered with Penn State and created THON, and since then many schools have done their own Mini-THON. This is North Penn’s third Mini-THON, and each year they have raised more than the last.

Each participant has to stand the whole 12 hours in honor of the children who can’t. However, this challenge wasn’t too hard as there was plenty to do. There was music all night to dance to, and each hour brought new activities and snacks. You could play bowling, mat ball, dodge ball, kickball, balloon battle, hands on challenge, and more. The start of each hour also brought everyone back into the gym for the line dance, which was a way to regroup and stretch to prepare for the next hour.

“Highlights for me had to be pancakes at 4 A.M. and the rave from 3-4,” remembered junior Billy Wermuth.

There were also contestants for Mr. and Mrs. Mini-THON, who got to introduce themselves and perform a lip sync before being voted for. The 2018 Mrs. Mini-THON is Kayleigh Macfarlan, and Mr. Mini-THON is Andrew Dunnigan.

Preparations for this year’s Mini-THON began back in December, when Director of Student Activities, Mr. Berger, and about 40 students broke into committees to begin planning. The committees are executive, fundraising, line dance, special events, and entertainment. Head chair Jackie Morrow and co-chairs Billy Wermuth and Krisha Patel met every Thursday, and the committees met every other Thursday.

“It feels amazing now that Mini-THON is over. Mini-THON breaks down for us the options that they can use our money for and it’s inspiring to see the number of kids we can positively impact,” said Wermuth, after his second year as co-chair.

Next year, North Penn hopes to make the fourth Mini-THON even better by raising more money and getting more students involved.

“For next year we plan to start preparing earlier as well as partnering with clubs to make it a bigger event,” explained Wermuth.

The Mini-THON committees are so glad to see all of their work for the event come together and raise $42,719.08 “for the kids.”

“I feel amazing after completing Mini-THON! We are helping so many different children and their families. And I’m so proud of how hard everyone worked, it all paid off,” commented head chair and senior Jackie Morrow.