For months, and in some cases years, media outlets have asked me time and time again what Coach Paterno means to me and to this university. Though I still struggle to explain it, Coach Paterno's passing may have given me part of the answer.
With Joe Paterno's passing has come a truly astounding amount of words, images, and videos honoring a man that deserves such a goodbye. One Penn State alumnus, with a little help from his friends, has found a way to honor JoePa while helping THON at the same time.
Has attending a funeral ever before contained feelings of relief and good fortune? Yesterday morning, thousands of us sat anxiously at our computers watching the seconds bleed away towards 10:00 a.m., when tickets would become available for perhaps the most significant event to occur on Penn State's campus in our time, or anyone's time, here. Though the process may have been practical, it still felt wrong.
Recent Penn State alums Caity Rogowski and Ariel Abramowitz flexed their social media muscles to put a stop to those selling tickets to Joe Paterno's memorial service for profit on eBay. Rogowski and Abramowitz began to drive prices up on every ticket listing they could find while also reporting each listing in an effort to catch eBay's attention.
THON announced that Canning Weekend #4 will occur the weekend of February 3-5, a week earlier than originally scheduled. The decision was made to "give more students, such as dancers and Committee Members, the opportunity to participate if they so choose," according to the release from THON.
We all knew this day would come, as it will for all of us, and we knew that day seemed near as Coach Paterno's cancer and subsequent treatments appeared in the news. Yet, none of us truly know how to react to the loss of a man whose impact we cannot measure, a man that we knew so well yet barely knew at all.