Mini-THON Needs Help from Students, Businesses

December 16, 2021

Mini-THON is struggling to achieve its goal of not only raising money to support kids with pediatric cancer, but also to fund operations for their main fundraising event in March.

The club needs help from the students and local businesses to secure any connections to help or help with fundraising (funds or items).

Mini-THON is looking for $50 gift cards to purchase supplies, donations of food, drinks, paper goods and items to raffle off at the main event.

Spanish teacher Heather Walker is the adviser for the Mini-THON club, a group aiming to raise money and support for the fight against pediatric cancer, and believes that she “[tries] to encourage students to set goals, work towards goals, and achieve their goals by guiding them through what may have worked or not worked in the past.”

Walker says that Mini-THON “reminds us that together we make a difference.”

Alumnus Gavin Held and junior Maria Sudakova promote the high school Mini-THON club.
Photograph Courtesy of @shsminithon via Instagram

Senior Alli Walker is the president of the Mini-THON club.“Mini-THON is special to me because I enjoy helping children and supporting their fight against pediatric cancer,” A. Walker said. “It is important to do what we can to provide assistance and love to families struggling. As president, I seek to encourage participation from the school… to organize, plan and lead the club throughout the year… my goal is to remind the SHS Mini-THON club why we do this: for the kids!”

So far, the club is lacking in corporate donations.

“In past years, students have secured monetary gifts from local stores like Walmart, Target, Kohls, restaurants and other businesses which almost covered our operating expenses of the event,” H. Walker said. “This year, students have not been very successful in acquiring donations from local businesses or spirit nights at local restaurants to help toward our costs.”

Pairs wait to see who will get crowned. From top row left to right, bottom row left to right: senior Shane Watson, senior Jasper Rowe, senior Dan Poole, junior Garrian Phanhthy, junior Cody McCredie, senior Cora Dunaja, senior Raili Sormus, junior Hannah Adler, junior Maddy Yoakum, and junior Sarah Ketterman. The Snow King competition is hosted by the Mini-THON club at Susquehannock. Boys from the senior and juniors classes, compete to see who can raise the most money or collect the most canned goods. Each boy places a large decorated cardboard box in the auditorium lobby and anyone from the student body can donate to who they wish. These boys also gather monetary donations that will go towards Mini-THON. Photograph by Alex Martuszewski

“We still have about 45 T-shirts to sell and gold ribbons, since gold is the color for pediatric cancer awareness,”said Walker.

There are two upcoming gold-out games in January for both boys and girls basketball.

The main event will take place at Suquehannock on March 4, 2022; Mini-THON is trying to raise $22,000 to donate towards pediatric cancer during the event.

The theme for this event will be glow-in-the-dark.

For the event, there will be black lights for glow-dodge-ball and white shirts given to each participant, according to Walker.

“We know that officer Mendez will be our DJ for the event,” explained H. Walker

Registration for the main event will begin when the Snow King winner is announced in February tentatively Feb. 15.

One way Mini-THON club is trying to raise money is through the app DonorDrive.

The app is available in the Google Play store and the iTunes app store.

Use the link the app provides to send out and acquire donations to help.

Any students, faculty, or community members with connections to local businesses or donors should reach out to H. Walker.