Before I get a wave of anger directed at me for being a THON troll, I want to say congratulations to Penn State for raising the money it did. The Four Diamonds Fund, where the money raised for THON goes to help children sick with pediatric cancer, is a wonderful entity.
Knowing the money goes to the Hershey Medical Center is a comforting thought to me. I had to attend the medical center from ages 5 to 10 for bee allergy shots, and I can say the staff in Hershey is one of the kindest and professional groups of nurses and doctors I ever met.
What I can't -- can't, can't, can't (major emphasis on can't) tolerate are the individuals who, after the total is revealed, go straight to social media to state how awesome and better they are for raising a ton of money for THON.
Let's go straight to the examples. I saw this one a few times in a similar context:
"I nominate @penn_state @THON's $12.3 million for pediatric cancer as a @SportsCenter top ten play. #SCtop10"
What this refers to is Sports Center's coverage of Penn State during the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case. Many Penn State students and alumni were upset with how the sports network -- in addition to many other news media outlets -- handled coverage of the case.
I'm not going to argue with how the media reported the case, but I will say Penn State's reputation and integrity were dealt a major blow from the former assistant football coach's actions with young boys over multiple years.
Naturally, Penn Staters want to find ways to redeem their school's image after this, and I don't see anything wrong with that. THON, however, has its motto emblazoned on banners everywhere: FOR THE KIDS. It should be kept at that. How is Sports Center including THON in its Top Ten Plays benefiting children? It could, in a sense, raise awareness to THON to a larger crowd, but that's about it. I don't see Sports Center coming out and saying, "Penn State's THON completely erases anything we said regarding the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case, and everything Penn State is officially awesome from here on out."
The only reason some people want Sports Center to cover this is for publicity -- to make our school look better in the light of everything that happened concerning Sandusky, but exploiting the money raised for the Four Diamonds Fund and for cancer patients as a way to make Penn State look better is malicious. Also, why would Sports Center cover this? THON has nothing to do with sports other than some of the athletes who make guest appearances. If Sports Center covers pediatric cancer, then I would also suggest it gets this story covered.
The only way I can see THON being considered for Sports Center is if the event is a contest. THON isn't supposed to be a contest, but over the years I've seen people who almost treat it that way, like this post here:
"My school just raised $12,374,034.46 for pediatric cancer. Try to brag about your school and I'll laugh #FTK"
Okay, so Penn State University is pretty cool for raising a ton of money. I respect that. Every other school is now inferior because they didn't do the same? PSU's Alma Mater includes the words, "May no act of ours bring us shame." This tweet makes me feel ashamed to the point that I feel someone should hit me for this person's cockiness just because I went to school at State.
Let's break this down. First, he states how much money Penn State raised for a cause. Kudos to Penn State. Then, he goes out and says he will make a student from another school feel like shit because they didn't raise $12.3 million. Finally, the guy has the nads to slap a "For The Kids" hashtag at the end. How is laughing at another educational institution going to help kids with pediatric cancer? How is boasting about how much money was raised going to make that kid who is deathly ill feel better?
I see a post like this from several people every THON weekend. All I can say is: "Congrats, pat yourself on the back. Oh, by the way, you have some crap hanging out of that butt hole you call your mouth." How often do you see someone from the United Way post: "Just raised x-amount of dollars for a local community. Suck it, everyone else!" Chances are, you don't. Apparently raising a large amount of money permits you to have a huge ego and demean others, though.
Charity is a "benevolent" act, not a contest of how much bigger your penis is than the guy's next to you. Posts like these also seem to suggest that Penn State is the only school who does charity like THON. One reporter from The Daily Collegian did a story a short time back about how other schools have started their own THONs. These schools don't raise as much money, but they're still doing it for a good cause.
Penn State shouldn't go bragging about how superior its THON is compared to others since the former has a few advantages. First, Penn State has had since 1977 to perfect the THON organization. Most other schools have held their fundraisers for no longer than two to three years.
Second, Penn State has a student population of almost 100,000 students. The community college down the road from me doesn't exactly have the man power to raise $12.3 million right away. Penn State also has the largest alumni association in the world with about 550,000 living members. If every one of those people combined were to donate one $20 bill a piece today, they would raise $13 million total for THON right now. No other school could even come close to matching that in its first two years if it tried.
Does this give Penn Staters the right to belittle other schools for their incompetence? Absolutely not. As for you, random THON boaster, did you happen to forget what happened over the past 15 years in Penn State locker rooms and showers? Because I bet you weren't laughing when you and the rest of the world found that little detail out. Try to brag about your school in that light, and I will laugh.
To finish this up:
A summary of several tweets: "How about that for [Penn State] culture?"
What people were trying to get at here was similar to the last argument -- THON is what Penn State's culture is truly about, and all the other stuff about child abuse or football culture doesn't.
Um, yeah, it kind of still does.
One good thing doesn't fix a multitude of wrongs. Jerry Sandusky's assistance to wayward children and the creation of the Second Mile foundation didn't deter from the fact he sexually abused a handful of defenseless children. Joe Paterno's 409 wins and his contributions to Penn State do not overshadow the fact he may have had a hand in covering up Sandusky's wrongdoings alongside other high-level members of the sports faculty.
Raising $12.3 million for pediatric cancer does not delete all the wrongdoing that happened behind closed doors over the past 15 years, the students who made the whole student body look like a joke by running a muck in the streets, or the more than 200 alcohol arrests made every year for State Patty's Day just one weekend after THON wraps up.
Penn State should be proud of THON, but once more, we have people treating it as a publicity stunt over a philanthropy. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh on these people. Many of them are dancers who busted their physical limitations, stood out in the cold to raise money and dedicated several hours of free time to help THON. As for me, I sat in my home all this weekend and didn't do squat. More power to these people.
At the same time, philanthropy isn't a Penn State football game. When we score big in THON, we're not supposed to berate the opposing team as we do after a touchdown. We're not supposed to laugh at the haters after the game. We aren't meant to tout how great our season record is.
Instead, we should be thinking about all the children who will benefit from this money raised. We should take comfort in knowing another child will have the chance to live a full life when, years ago, their chance was nothing more than a small percentage on a medical record.
I'm not telling THONers to be silent about their accomplishments this past year. Be proud of what you did, for how much money you raised and all the lives you have impacted, but don't be obnoxious about it.
Don't chalk it up as another win for Penn State. Don't think of it as a permanent marker that will smudge out all the bad of the past one-and-a-half decades. Don't forget what "For The Kids" means. Don't substitute anything else in replacement of "kids."
Finally, remember one thing: You HELPED to raise $12.3 million. Have you forgotten about all those people who dropped spare change and bills into your cans outside of the local Walmart? Have you forgotten the thousands of donors who anonymously donated money? Also, do you see these donors bragging on Twitter: "Donated 50 cents to THON this year. What did you do today, everyone else who didn't?" They did it for charity -- not for redemption or publicity.
Remember everything you did to reach this moment, cherish it and take pride in it. Everyone will know how much money you raised tomorrow. There's no need for you to beat that fact into everyone until they end up in the ER. I will end this post with the words of friends of mine: Stay classy, Penn State.
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