MT’s MiniTHON Club has been busy organizing fundraising events. This year, the students have fundraised through bake sales, football games, and most recently, the 11th annual MiniTHON Showcase. All of the proceeds from these events are donated to children battling childhood cancer through the Four Diamonds Foundation at Penn State, and help raise awareness for those in the fight.
“We are all very excited with how the event went,” said senior MiniTHON head Gabby Romano. “All of the teams were really into it, and all of the individual contestants had a lot of fun with it. Most of the preparation is on the teams and individuals, so our main job is organizing”.
At the showcase, 15 MT sports teams competed to both raise the most money and to perform the best dance with the help of the MT Dance Team. The athletes attended many practices led by their assigned dancers who choreographed each performance.
Along with the team competitions, there were also individual acts that showcased the hidden talents of a small group of high school students. On the judge panel voting on the winners were teachers Mr. Wagner, Mrs. Poliski, Mr. K. Kantz, and Mr. W. Kantz.
The performances started off with the dance team, who blew the judges away with their perfectly choreographed dance and impressive fundraising total of $3,353. From this point on, the performances became less serious and had many surprises. Many flips, Disney princesses, and even a bird mask were seen in the dances as the event progressed.
The winner was the girls tennis team. Their performance consisted of aerial cartwheels and other impressive gymnastic skills which gave them a first place finish in the competition.
“We had a great time working together to learn our dance and raise money for MiniTHON,” said junior tennis player Meghan Phillips. “Thank you to Emily Campbell and Georgia Ealy who were our amazing choreographers, and to the judges for their funny comments.”
The boys wrestling team took home second place, and the track and field team took home third, which concluded the team performances.
Next up were the individual performances. Nolan McBride, Alex McCloud and Sebastian Colon performed stand up comedy, Tony Vasquez and Nick Good sung “We Will Rock You,” Brian Meck and Andrew Flury performed karate, and Quin Arnold and Jack Pfitzenmaier performed a skit from “Napoleon Dynamite.” Jack and Quin took home the wins for both the most money raised and best performance.
Overall, this event was a success for MT’s MiniTHON as they raised $22,944.89, significantly more than last year’s sum. The club will continue to prepare over the next few months as they approach their main event on Feb. 23.
