Penn State Rugby has embraced a grand community tradition on campus and has become the one sports team at the school to throw its weight behind tyne THON dance marathon for pediatric cancer.

The THON is a 46-hour dance marathon that requires dancers to stay on their feet and not rest or sleep while they earn pledges to help fund the fight against pediatric cancer. It’s a huge undertaking to support the effort because expectations are high - THON raised $13 million last year - and so sports teams usually don’t get involved because it’s too time-consuming.

But a few years ago the Penn State rugby teams - men and women - decided to get involved. It started small at first, but now is a huge part of the team’s off-field activities.

“It’s a year-long fundraiser,” said Tess Feury, who plays for Penn State’s women’s team. “You start right when you get to school. And when the THON is going on, the campus is pretty much shut-down.”

Photos of the Penn State players, and mascot, with their biggest fan, Logan.

The rugby players work hard during the winter months to raise funds, and are able to enter one men’s team player and one women’s team player into the actual dance marathon (places are limited so organizations have a limited number of members who can enter). The rest of the teams provide moral and material support to the dancers.

“It takes a big toll on the body,” said Feury. “So there’s medical support, food. We write them dance room mail to give them encouragement and give them motivational packages. Sometimes we’re just there to visit with them and hang out with them.”

As for the program as a whole, “the coaches have been really supportive and we make sure that we’re able to participate in all of the THON activities,” said Feury. “We get pledges, and we’re reaching out to new donors, too, because this is such a great cause.”

Organizations are linked with a young child suffering from cancer to make the cause more personal. For the rugby players, it’s a young boy named Logan, who has become a huge rugby fan and is an inspiration to the players.

“We’re very close to Logan’s family,” said Feury. “We can see where our fundraising efforts are going, and we can see they’re making an impact.”

If you would like to support Penn State Rugby’s efforts in the THON, see the links below:

For more information on THON in general: http://www.thon.org 

Penn State Rugby's donation link is here.