THON weekend is only possible because of the dozens of THON organizations on campus. These organizations work countless hours to raise money for the fight against childhood cancer.

One of these organizations is the Club Water Polo THON org, which consists of members from both the men’s and women’s Penn State Club Water Polo teams. THON weekend got off to the typical start for Club Water Polo when they sent their “alpha squad” to reserve their spot for the final four this Sunday.

“Our alpha squad came in and got our spot right away,” Club Water Polo THON Chair Nolan Marett said. “It’s cool because it sets the tone for the whole weekend and allows us to cheer on our dancers.”

This year the Club Water Polo organization selected four seniors to represent the organization as dancers during THON weekend. All four have been heavily invested in the organization since their freshman year.

“Our dancers this year are Ben Tate, Steph Galetta, Kassidy McCullough, and Sarah Anderson,” Marett said. “They’re all seniors and they’ve all been involved throughout their time in college. Three out of the four have been chairs before except for Sarah, but even she is heavily involved. She’s organized fundraisers for us and done a ton of other stuff.”

Due to safety concerns related to students traveling out of town, established fundraising methods like canning have been fazed out by THON in the past few years. Canvassing, when fundraisers walk door to door, became something of a replacement for some orgs this year.

Unfortunately, similar issues with travel led to THON canceling the remaining out-of-town fundraising trips in November for the rest of the 2019 fundraising campaign. This has led to many organizations, including Club Water Polo, getting creative in their fundraising efforts.

“Since a lot of the fundraising outside of State College has been canceled we’ve been focusing on fundraising in State College,” Marett said. “We do the typical things that other organizations do, but we also try to do things that cater to Water Polo. This year we did an inter tube Water Polo tournament. It was really unique for us because we were able to mix fundraising for THON with our organization’s specialty.”

Marett said the relationship that the organization has with its THON families is what makes the whole experience special.

“We THON specifically for our families the Wagners and the Benders,” Marett said. “But we also THON so that every kid can have childhood. It doesn’t seem fair, and it doesn’t seem right, that children have their childhood taken away from them at such an early age.”