Dating back to 2008, the Holdsman family has always had someone involved in THON. But in those 12 years, THON 2019 will be the first time that one of the three sisters danced in THON.

Mary Holdsman, one of Tri-STATE’s dancers this weekend, first experienced THON when her sister Kelly was on a committee in 2011 during her senior year. The trio of sisters were each spaced out perfectly four years apart — allowing them to create quite a legacy.

“I went with my whole family. We got to visit her, which was so exciting,” Mary said. “You can hear all about it, but you can’t know what it actually is until you’re there and see it. It was just unreal and so empowering.”

The middle sister Tara, who was on a committee from 2012-2015, lives in California and was unable to visit during the weekend, but Kelly was able to spend time on the floor with Mary on Saturday.

Mary’s journey to dancing in 2019 started on Rules & Regulations committee before moving to Dancer Relations committee for her junior year.

She then joined Tri-STATE, which her roommate Rebecca Williamson is the president of. To cap it all off, Williamson’s sister was friends with Kelly and a dancer during THON 2011. She’ll also be here supporting the Tri-STATE duo.

Mary and the Tri-STATE gang put together multiple fundraisers through the year. But as a student teacher, she had the opportunity to pass along the spirit of THON to a whole new group of kids.

One of her favorite fundraisers was a mini-THON event at a school she used to teach at where they collected quarters and lined them up on the gym floor by class to see how much money each raised.

Her students this semester are just as excited for her to partake in these 46 hours.

“Especially since they got to take such a big part in it this year, really getting introduced to it and learning more about it. I’m happy we got to bring it to them,” she said.

Mary’s been at THON more than 30 hours each of the past couple of years, but heading into 2019, she’s most excited to get to be there for every single one of the little moments.

“I’m so excited we get to be there for the whole time because there is so much during the weekend and our THON family family, the Homans, will be there. Declan Homan is now officially two years cancer free, which is awesome,” Mary said.

“It’ll be nice to see our families too. Because I’m dancing with my best friends, it’ll be nice to see their families because we’re all so close.”