Daily Collegian - Greek Hour focused on its rich, long history with THON

In a united front, individuals in bright colors entered the stage together for the annual Greek Hour.

This year’s Greek Hour began at 9:40 a.m. Saturday to the scattered clusters of spectators in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Unlike the previous years, Greek Hour started with a video presentation on the intricate history of the Penn State Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon involving all the greek organizations on the Penn State campus.

Maddie Tauber, one of the THON Greek Liaison Chairs and a THON dancer, explained how members of greek organizations are involved in THON and she spoke about her current THON experience.

“Well, for this year, Greek Hour was my only THON job,” Tauber, member of Alpha Omicron Pi, said.

Tauber (senior-journalism) said organizing Greek Hour and dancing is a “really cool” experience.

The video showcased a visual timeline of changing hairstyles and clothing choices from previous THON years, but the one constant of each year was the always energetic enthusiasm of the BJC crowd.

After the video finished, a performance from this year’s “Greek Sing” winners came to the stage to entertain the crowd.

The winners, Alpha Xi Delta and Sigma Pi, sang their hearts out with practiced choreography to the music of “Shrek,” the popular children’s movie turned musical.

“I really liked Sigma Pi’s and Alpha Xi Delta’s performances,” said Zeta Tau Alpha member Katie Del Guerico (senior-biology). “They are the first place winners of this year’s ‘Greek Sing,’ and they made a good choice with the Shrek music.”

At one point, the performers brought some Penn State relevance to the performance, when the narrator mentioned the Willard preacher during the marriage scene between Fiona and Lord Farquaad.

Then, Beth Garrigan came to the stage with a purpose — to tell everyone about the importance of THON within her life, especially with her family.

Garrigan explained how her daughter was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s lymphoma and how THON helped support her family through that difficult time.

Today, her daughter is cancer-free and THON still remains active within her family. Her son Justin Garrigan is a senior member of the Theta Chi fraternity and he is heavily involved in THON within his fraternity.

Justin and Beth Garrigan speak during THON

Penn State alumna Isaura Olivares similarly mentioned how greek organizations are such an crucial part of THON, especially with fundraising.

“I respect greek life and how they bring a lot of money to THON for the Four Diamonds fund,” Olivares said.

Then, the hour’s plans moved onto a lighter note with a game show called “Are you smarter than a THON chair?” with Four Diamonds children as participants.

The children proved their range of knowledge through their answers on a variety of subjects, such as musical streaming, geographical borders and specific fossils.

“The only new element for this year was the game show, ‘Are You Smarter than a THON Chair?’” Tauber said. “We let the THON chairs dress in whatever they wanted, and they chose a nerdy style.”

Before the hour finished, the THON chairs from certain greek organizations presented the scheduled theme for this year’s Greek Week.

In a numbered countdown, several THON chairs revealed the theme by lifting a banner with the words “Legend of the Greeks” to the cheering crowd.