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Over the course of this school year, students have become more aware of Bellwood-Antis’ Mini-THON initiative. Student-run committees are working hard to make sure of it.

“We’ve created an Instagram @bahs_minithon to keep students informed about the event,” said Public Relations chair Tina Hollen. “We also have made flyers and a QR code to get the word out there to sign up and start fundraising.”

The Four Diamonds Mini-THON is an event modeled after Penn State’s THON—a yearlong fundraiser that ends in a dance marathon. Colleges and high schools across the country take part, and all proceeds go to Four Diamonds. The mission of Four Diamonds is to conquer childhood cancer by funding research and assisting families who have been affected.

The B-A dance marathon is scheduled for March.

At Bellwood-Antis, Mini-THON is being planned and run by several student committees. Each committee plans a different aspect of the event, such as fundraising or entertainment, and is led by a student chair.

Their hard work shows in the progress they’ve made so far. “Each committee has been hard at work by maintaining fundraisers, planning the events, and receiving donations from food companies,” said Mini-THON Senior chair Kamryn Mercer.

In fact, the students are on track to reach their fundraising goal of $5,000, according to Mini-THON officer Brandie Ray.

“Mini-THON has become much more than our school—it has become community involvement from every angle and corner!” she said. “We have already nearly reached $5,000 with the community on our side, and we have until June 1 to fundraise.”

The Mini-THON committees are also making progress on the details of the March 2, 2018 dance event.

“Our committees have come far in planning the actual dance and going out to solicit the items that will make our dance stand above the rest,” said Brandie.

She attributed their success in these areas to Operations chair Mya Decker and Entertainment chair Maggie Erickson. Brandie also mentioned former B-A Spanish teacher Mrs. Christine Claar’s help in gathering the materials for the event.

Despite the fundraiser’s success thus far, the public relations committee has more events planned to increase student and community awareness of Mini-THON.

“Periodically we make videos to promote the event more and soon we’ll be reaching out to local news to cover our event,” said Tina. In addition, the committee will make a big push to get more students to sign up and fundraise through Donor Drive.

There is always a danger of Mini-THON losing support like it did last year, when Aevidum attempted to plan the event before it fell through due to lack of support. However, the student committees are remaining optimistic.

“Gwen Dougherty, our chair for fundraising, with co-chair Olivia Jacobs, have been working extremely hard to formulate activities to engage students without losing their attention,” said Brandie.

Kamryn also has high hopes for Mini-THON.

“If we keep up the energy and fundraising we will have a great turnout!” she said.