During the week of January 2, Leadership Seminar students revealed this year’s colors for Mini-THON teams. Each team’s captains created a video shown on the webcast each day of the week. This year’s colors are orange, pink, purple, and blue.

Every year the team captains draft teams after each sign-up deadline. Once teams are drafted the teams are posted in the hallway for students to view. During Mini-THON, teams play games against each other; however, participants do not need to stay with their teams throughout the night. 

Blue team captain Maddy Ruddek explained how Leadership decides teams and team colors. “To decide the colors, we had all Leadership students vote on the colors they felt were the best fit.

“Some of the colors are repeated from years prior, but there is always lots of diversity. Once the colors were decided, the team captains were decided shortly after. From there, the team captains came up with their own ideas for their videos and filmed them before Christmas break.

“The teams didn’t discuss their videos too much with one another so when we saw that three of them were based on TV shows, it was pretty surprising. Teams in Mini-THON are important because they show that we can all fight together to find a cure for pediatric cancer. However, your team doesn’t determine who you are with all night. The colors help identify which team you can help compete with during the games but you can still socialize with your friends for the whole night regardless of what team they’re on.”

Mini-THON is based on Penn State’s THON and raises money for kids with pediatric cancer. The money supports kids both financially and emotionally. Mini-THON both spreads awareness and ensures funding for research. 

Team captain Chloe McHugh explains why teams are important,  “I think that teams are a very important part of Mini-THON. They are important because it gives people a chance to meet others, and for everyone to come together that night and just have a great time!”

Mini-THON is a major event in our school. Everyone comes together in support of the families with kids who have been diagnosed with cancer. Last year our school raised 64,000 dollars for the Four Diamonds foundation.