In 1973, 78 dancers participated in Penn State's first Dance Marathon in the ballroom of the Hetzel Union Building (HUB). The event, which lasted 30 hours, raised $2,136 for the Butler County Chapter of the Arc of Pennsylvania.

Four years later, in 1977, Four Diamonds Fund was chosen as the Dance Marathon's beneficiary for the first time, and $28,685 was raised. Since then, THON has raised more than $219 million for Four Diamonds, helping to cover the costs that Four Diamonds families face when undergoing cancer treatment at Penn State Health Children's Hospital and to support pediatric cancer research. 

Today, with more than 700 dancers and 16,500 student volunteers participating annually, the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) has grown into the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. The above gallery of photos shows how THON has evolved over the last 52 years. Learn more about THON's history at thon.org or in this 2022 Penn Stater magazine article, "50 Years of THON." 

THON Weekend 2024 will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16 at the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. Visitors planning to attend can find more information here. For those not able to attend in person, there are multiple ways to tune in to THON throughout the weekend.