{"id":119091,"date":"2026-02-20T14:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119091\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:45:10","slug":"meet-the-penn-state-lehigh-valley-students-dancing-in-thon-this-weekend-in-university-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/119091\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Penn State Lehigh Valley students dancing in THON this weekend in University Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn State Lehigh Valley<\/a> students contributed more than $16,000 to THON<\/a> last year, helping the organization reach a record $16 million raised at its annual dance marathon.<\/p>\n

Another contingent of students from the Lehigh Valley is expected to be at Penn State\u2019s University Park campus<\/a> through the weekend for this year\u2019s installment of the dance marathon. <\/p>\n

THON,<\/a> recognized as the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, hosts the 46-hour, no-sitting, no-sleeping dance marathon that unites thousands of Penn State students from across the Commonwealth in support of childhood cancer patients and research.<\/p>\n

Four students are representing Penn State Lehigh Valley at this year\u2019s event: Alayna Limani, a first-year student majoring in finance; Sage Lin, a first-year student majoring in psychology; Kaleb Ogden, a second-year student majoring in marketing; and Ben Brodhead, a second-year student majoring in actuarial science.<\/p>\n

THON Weekend 2026 officially begins when the dancers stand at 6 p.m. Friday and ends on at 4 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Bryce Jordan Center at the University Park campus in State College hosts the event. <\/p>\n

Our sister website, PennLive.com, has more on this year\u2019s event in the following preview: What to know about Penn State\u2019s massive 2-day student fundraiser.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since 1977, THON has partnered exclusively with Four Diamonds at Penn State Health Golisano Children\u2019s Hospital. The organization directs its fundraising efforts to provide comprehensive financial and emotional support for children and families while advancing pediatric cancer research.<\/p>\n

Donor support has generated more than $254 million since the partnership began, with 96 cents of every dollar raised contributed directly to Four Diamonds. The funds help ensure that eligible pediatric cancer patients receive the care they need, regardless of their families\u2019 ability to pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State Lehigh Valley students contributed more than $16,000 to THON last year, helping the organization reach a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-119091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}