A week after a Penn State student was killed in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike while she returned from a fund-raising trip, the university's well-known THON organization has canceled an upcoming fund-raising weekend.
The news that the Oct. 23-25 "canning weekend" -- when students would stand on the street collecting donations for THON, which benefits childhood cancer -- would be canceled surfaced on Monday after THON 2016 Executive Director Katie Mailey published a letter to those involved in the organization on its website.
"This past week, we have received multiple emails and calls from community members concerned with volunteer safety," Mailey wrote. "We want to make sure we carefully consider these concerns and take the necessary time to evaluate how to make our fund-raising practices safer for the future of our organization. Because of this, the second Fundraising Outreach & Canning Weekend for THON 2016 ... will be suspended."
Mailey said safety of volunteers involved in THON, a yearlong fund-raising effort best known for the annual dance marathon at its culmination, is a "top priority" for the organization. She wrote that procedures and policies would be reviewed before the third "canning weekend," scheduled for Nov. 13-15.
Vitalya "Tally" Sepot, a 19-year-old sophomore at Penn State from Connecticut, was traveling on the Turnpike in Chester County after a THON canning trip Sept. 27 with six other students when the driver somehow lost control and crashed. Sepot died from her injuries, and the six other students were taken to Paoli Hospital.
"There is no doubt that this has been an extremely difficult week for many in our THON and Penn State communities after the loss of Tally Sepot," Mailey began her letter. "Our hearts continue to be with Tally's family and friends during this heartbreaking time."
Penn State News reported Monday that the decision to suspend the canning weekend is effective for all the university's campuses across the state. THON has raised more than $127 million for families of children with cancer and toward pediatric cancer research since 1977, according to Penn State News.
