THON announced Monday afternoon that its second scheduled canning weekend, Oct. 23-25, is suspended due to safety concerns following the death of Tally Sepot coming home from the first canning weekend.

Executive director Katie Malley wrote a letter to the THON community explaining the decision. Here’s an excerpt:

“Over the past few years, THON has implemented a number of policies and practices aimed at improving the safety for our volunteers while fundraising. Our student volunteers are trained through a mandatory course on the THON e-Learning Management System, an online module-based education tool, in areas such as safe fundraising practices, donor interaction and travel safety. Earlier this year, THON determined that Fundraising Outreach & Canning Weekends would no longer be scheduled past the middle of November, given concerns of inclement weather.

This past week, we have received multiple emails and calls from community members concerned with volunteer safety. We want to make sure we carefully consider these concerns and take the necessary time to evaluate how to make our fundraising practices safer for the future of our organization. Because of this, the second Fundraising Outreach & Canning Weekend for THON 2016, October 23-25, will be suspended. This is to ensure that the safety and welfare of our volunteers remains the top priority of our organization, while allowing for an opportunity to evaluate our policies and procedures before the third Fundraising Outreach & Canning Weekend, scheduled for November 13-15. We are working to implement additional safety procedures, and will update our volunteers as soon as possible regarding the status of the third Fundraising Outreach & Canning Weekend for the THON 2016 season.”

The third canning weekend is scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 13-15.