Everyone says THON is the best weekend of the year. No one says it’s the easiest. Most students are standing with their organizations or committees for hours on end and far into the night.

As we approach the last hours of THON, students are trying their best to push through until the very end. I talked with a few students on how they keep themselves busy during the early hours of Sunday morning:

Malcolm Bouman

Malcolm Bouman is a brother of Phi Kappa Theta and was on shift with his org. Bouman told me that as he was walking around the BJC, he and a few friends discovered a video game console displaying the popular NBA game 2K.

“One of my friends signed into the game and we just started playing,” he said. “We’ve been playing for around 30 minutes and we’re probably gonna be here for another hour.”

Bouman said he is planning on spending a total of 23 hours at THON by the end of the weekend.

Allie Beinhacker

I talked to Allie Beinhacker as she was charging her phone. Her reason for being at the BJC so early Sunday morning was to support her friends who are dancing this year.

When I asked how she passed the time, she said, “I do a lot of laps around the BJC. I listen to music or podcasts if I can process them in this state of mind. I’ve also been eating a bunch. I’ve had two pints of ice cream in the last hour.”

Kevin Abeles

Kevin Abeles is also at THON with his fraternity, Delta Upsilon. Abeles plans to stay at THON until the very end. To keep himself busy, he likes to “watch the dancers like [he’s] watching TV”. Kevin also says that getting to know new people is a great way to pass the time.

Lexi Rice

Lexi Rice is at THON with her sorority Pi Beta Phi. I talked with her as she waited in line for floor passes with her friends. She said that she is trying to be at THON as much as possible this year to support her friend, Reagan, who is dancing.

“We know that these are some of the toughest hours, so we wanted to make sure we were gonna be here and be strong for her,” she said. “I got here at 9 p.m. and I’ll probably stay here until the end.”

Jay Wainwright

Jay is a Rule and Regulations committee member. He said that he loved making up his own dances to songs because it got his blood pumping. Jay has gotten very creative with ways to keep himself awake saying, “I have been trying to balance a water bottle on my head since 9 p.m. and I’ll be here until 3 a.m.”