Kristen Donahoe – “The Director”
Kristen Donahoe was a junior in high school when she attended THON for the first time. As a miniTHON captain from Gibsonia, a small town 17 miles north of Pittsburgh, she said she knew Penn State was the place for her once she saw the BJC during THON.
Her time at Penn State has been full of THON involvement. During her first year, she was an operations committee member, and then a dance relations second-in-command during her second year.
She became a captain during her third year, working as the hospital tours and event coordinator for the Communications Committee. During her fourth year, she became the alumni engagement director.
Now, Donahoe is an MBA student and served as the volunteer logistics director, a new position for THON and the “culmination of her THON career.”
"I knew that I wanted to make my five years at Penn State count and walk away with something more than just a degree. I wanted to really walk away knowing that I did everything I could to leave THON and leave Penn State better than I found it," she said.
In her role, she oversaw the 17 committees that planned events, gave the committees education resources, took care of accountability and the anonymous reporting system and gave guidance on the first-year committee experience.
Most of all, she said, the position was “a lot of questions, a lot of providing answers, and that can look like a million different things … every single day is so different, so I can never really predict what a day in my position will look like.”
The skills she has learned in her MBA education like “how to effectively manage a group of people, and how to effectively manage an organization” helped her in her role, she said.
Next year, she will be work in corporate human resources in a rotational program with Charter Communications.
Courtney Lamelza – “The Captain”
Courtney Lamelza is a senior supply chain and information systems major with minors in information systems management and human development and family studies.
As a data analytics and forecasting marketing captain on the Merchandise Committee, her job included analyzing data from marketing campaigns, looking at information from the merchandise website, managing focus groups and much more. Her major regularly helped with her position.
From taking SCM 421: Supply Chain Analytics to learning how to monitor inventory flow and identifying "bottlenecks" in the distribution process, she said she got to see "supply chain in action."
Her role last year as an order management captain in the Merchandise Committee helped her as well. And, she added, it helped her land an internship with American Eagle.
Her love for THON, she said, extends much further than her academic interests.
“Merchandise is just so special because it's such a unique committee in the fact that we are really in the dead middle of fundraising and awareness," she said.
Her brother, who is five years older, was a THON dancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. She recalled standing with him as she danced virtually.
She said her passion for making sure families "never saw the bill" heightened when a classmate in high school passed away from cancer.
“Seeing how much of an impact that had on him, having to miss classes, having to kind of give up so many aspects of just being a normal teenager … that had a really big impact on me,” Lamelza said. “Being able to just put everything that I was feeling and everything I knew about THON into how passionate I was and how much I wanted to make an impact so that eventually we can dance for our cure.”
Her four years involved in THON and countless hours of work each week led to helping kids, she said.
“We want to make an impact so that eventually we can dance for our cure and help so that families don't have to worry about having these financial burdens,” Lamelza said. “They can just really focus on making sure that their child is feeling better, and that kids can just be kids.”
Olivia Steinmetz – “The THON Chair”
Olivia Steinmetz is a junior marketing major. As primary THON chair for her business fraternity, Phi Beta Lambda, she was in charge of everything from organizing the fundraising details to selecting dancers for her fraternity.
She said a huge part of that was working with the fraternity’s THON families, the Hoglunds and the Fleagles. The fraternity spent time with them by visiting their houses and playing games, doing THON events together like "100 Days until THON" and more.
While in the stands throughout THON weekend, she said, “Just having their support and them being like, ‘you guys are doing so amazing.’ It brightened my spirits, and I was like, ‘I can keep going.’ If we have their support, I can keep going and doing this.”
The organization raised $128,000, which placed it among the top 5 for general student organizations.
“Seeing that number at the end and knowing that we've been able to provide more things for more kids after this year was just so satisfying. It made my heart so happy,” she said.
A major part of her and the rest of the stands’ job, she said, was cheering on their dancers.
“It's our responsibility in the stands to put on and be that happy face for them. So, when they're tired, they can look up at us and be like, ‘I can keep going,’” she said.
John Papadopolous – "The Dancer”
On the other side of PBL (Phi Beta Lambda) THON was John Papadopoulos, a fourth-year finance student, minoring in information systems management and global and international studies. As a brother of Phi Beta Lambda, he has served as director of finance during his third year, a recruitment chair last fall and, lastly, the donor and alumni THON chair this past semester. He was then selected as one of the six dancers for PBL.
Leading up to THON, Papadopolous said he did a lot of preparation. He cut out caffeine, made sure to get 15 to 20 thousand steps a day, and prioritized sleep and clean eating while also fundraising.
Dancing was just one step of the journey for him, he said. He participated in miniTHON during high school in the planning committee then served as the overall chair his senior year.
Participating in a Rules and Regulation Committee during his second year and volunteering with his business fraternity was a destination for him.
“Dancing was really cool because it was a culmination of all of that work over eight years,” he said.
Dancing was no easy feat, he said — there were plenty of difficult points.
He constantly had to move to stay awake, he said, collecting more than 60 thousand steps over the weekend. And, he added, the early mornings on Saturday and Sunday were especially tough for him.
“What I'm going through right now is not even as difficult as like the side effects of going through chemotherapy and other cancer treatments,” he said.
There were plenty of positive points for him, too, Papadopoulos said.
“When the national act came out, I was on the floor with my mom, which was really cool,” he said. “Some of my friends have a band, the Sarasota band, and they performed Sunday really early in the morning, so it was cool to see them perform.
“I think one of my favorite moments — and this is going to sound a little negative almost — but it was when we sat down. Because when we sit down, and it's obviously so relieving, but it was just cool to see everyone in PBL still cheering us on. Like, it actually gives me chills thinking about it.”
Pediatric cancer was more than just a cause to Papadopolous. It was a lived experience for his family, he said. His cousin passed away from cancer at the age of 11. He lived in rural Greece and could not get the resources he needed, said Papadopolous; he was not able to receive the treatments that Four Diamonds kids receive at Penn State Hershey as a result of THON.
“That treatment would then disseminate across the world,” Papadopolous said. “Kids across the world, no matter where they're from, can benefit from the work that we're doing here at Penn State.”