It was another record-setting year for Penn State’s THON and its fundraising efforts to support pediatric cancer patients and research.
THON 2025 raised $17,737,040.93 the Four Diamonds at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, the student-run philanthropy revealed on Sunday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center. The announcement came following the conclusion of the annual 46-hour dance marathon that began at 6 p.m. on Friday, the culmination of a year of fundraising efforts.
The total surpasses the previous record of $16,955,683 million set in 2024 and marks the fourth consecutive year with a new all-time highest total.
Celebrating its 53rd year, THON has now raised more than $254 million since partnering with Four Diamonds, ensuring that no pediatric cancer patient family at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital receives a bill. It has assisted more than 4,800 families while helping to build comprehensive care services for patients and families.
In addition to relieving the financial pressures that come with a family’s most difficult challenge, THON has also helped expand the ways care can be provided. In the past decade the fundraising has supported the implementation of a Survivorship Clinic to provide personalized plans of care for every child, genetic testing and counseling, a pediatric oncology fellowship program and expanded specialty care services such as art therapy, a parents’ mentoring program and more.
“We’re able to fund the roles of more than 30 specialty care providers,” said Suzanne Graney, Four Diamonds executive director. “They are providing therapeutic services that are clinically proven to increase the likelihood of a successful fight against cancer. So those therapists are with our kiddos every day. Child life specialists are helping to explain what cancer is and how treatments will proceed at an individual level. How you explain to a three-year-old what’s coming up is very different than how you might explain it to a 13-year-old, and we have tools available and resources available and that staff available because of THON’s steady support of Four Diamonds.”
A THON motto is “One day we will dance in celebration. Until then we will dance for a cure.” To that end, the organization’s efforts are also helping to fund critical research aimed at finding that cure — one of the several reasons THON 2025’s theme of “A Home for Hope” is so fitting.
“What we know is all the best care in the world doesn’t lead us to a day without cancer. Only research is going to lead us to that day,” Graney said. “And we have such an amazing opportunity through our partnership with THON to be able to invest in research, looking for answers to why cancer happens to begin with… Hope is what THON provides through the funding that that is taking care of the cost of care and those specialty providers, but the biggest area of hope that they are providing is through funding for research. That is what will ultimately lead us to a cure.”
THON has grown to become a year-round endeavor that includes 16,500 student volunteers, It’s fundraising year starts in July and along the way there are a number of events to raise money and to bring together Four Diamonds families — Harvest Day, the THON 5K, Family Carnival and the 100 Days Til THON celebration among them. A mid-cycle two-week fundraising campaign, “Dream Forward,” which started in 2019, raised more than $1.9 million.
Everything leads up to THON weekend, the no-sleeping, no-sitting dance marathon that started in 1973 and permanently partnered with Four Diamonds as its sole beneficiary. Its beginnings were humble, with the first event hosted in the HUB Ballroom lasting 30 hours and raising about $2,000.
It grew substantially in the years that followed, moving to the White Building, then Rec Hall and finally the Bryce Jordan Center in 2007. Since moving to Penn State’s largest indoor venue, THON can reach full capacity at times throughout the weekend, such as during the Saturday night pep rally, which features performances by Nittany Lion sports teams and this year included appearances by Athletic Director Pat Kraft, President Neeli Bendapudi and former Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley.
The pep rally is one of many traditions that have grown up with THON over the decades. One of the more recent ones is the surprise Friday night performance by a national act. This year’s was rock band The Fray, which played a set that included hits like “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “You Found Me,” and concluded appropriately with “How to Save a Life.”
Those traditions continued throughout the weekend and into the final hours, when Four Diamonds families took to the stage to share emotional stories of their cancer journeys.
It all concluded with one last burst of music in the last hour, with popular cover band Go Go Gadjet energizing the crowd, before dancers finally got off their feet at 4 p.m. and the fruits of their efforts — the fundraising total — were revealed.
“As an organization, we are so proud to continue creating a home for hope for our families, volunteers, alumni and supporters, where people have the freedom to dream, inspire and incite passion for a future without childhood cancer, alongside our sole beneficiary, Four Diamonds at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital,” Kaitlyn Wolfe, THON 2025 public relations director and a Penn State senior, said. “This year’s celebration of hope serves for a better, brighter future, filled with stories of our families, volunteers and supporters reaching important milestones in their lives.”
