THON will host its first-ever showcase at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 18 in Eisenhower Auditorium. The event will replace Mr. and Mrs. THON and will incorporate the theme “Hidden Wonders” throughout the night.

The showcase will include a fundraising portion, a talent portion, and a Q&A session for competing acts.Through this event, Communications Events Coordinator Captain Scarlett Loughlin hopes acts will be able to share their talents and fundraising efforts.

“Hidden Wonders creatively incorporates The THON 2018 theme ‘Discovering Tomorrow’s Wonder’ meanwhile holding true to what the event is really doing: highlighting the talent that might be unnoticed otherwise within our THON community,” Loughlin said.

The fundraising component is a weeklong window for each organization to fundraise to get the leading amount of points going into the showcase. This point total will be added to the two other components for the act’s total score.

Fifteen acts will perform at the event representing different organizations, committees, and independent dancer couples; the acts were chosen through an application and audition process. The first-place act will take home $2,000 for its respective THON organization and the second-place act will leave with $1,000.

“These talented individuals are our hidden wonders of THON,” Laughlin said. “To me, this means we give these shining souls a chance to show Penn State all that they have to offer in their question and answers, talent, and dedication to fundraising for THON.”

Audience members can also win some money for THON — 10 attendees will be chosen at random for drawings of $500. Tickets are just $8 and will automatically enter members into the lottery. You can credit your ticket to your THON organization by writing the organization name on the back of the ticket.

These are the groups performing at the Hidden Wonders showcase:

• The Roof and Caroline Morris
• Maggie Rainey
• Samantha Panny
• Bryel Frasch and Ethan Siegel
• Jessica Gazzani
• Shawn Fox
• Addison Lindenberg
• Ambitions Dance
• Alexander Myers
• Vole
• K-Pop and Dance
• Garrett Liebel
• Bethany Dennis
• Tapestry Dance
• Najah Brown and Brian Stickler​

You can purchase tickets for the showcase at the Eisenhower Auditorium box office, the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, and online.