On May 14, 2021, SHS students gathered in Ross-Stulgaitis stadium to fight childhood cancer. 

Every year since 2015, Stroudsburg High School has hosted a Mini-THON to raise money to fight childhood cancer. This event is a smaller version of Penn State’s THON, where students must remain on their feet for 46 hours straight.  

At Mini-THON, students do not sit down for 12 hours; rather, they spend the night dancing and playing games. Most years there is also an opportunity to cut and donate hair. 

Mini-THON was originally started by The Four Diamonds, a group that covers medical costs of families of children with cancer. They also fund research for better cancer treatments. 

With Covid restrictions, SHS decided to do Mini-THON a bit differently. 

The event started at 6:00 p.m. and lasted until 10:00 p.m. Students were able to play a variety of games outside such as pong, kan jam, and badminton — while remaining socially distanced.

Every hour, the song “3x” by Chris Brown played and each attendee performed a choreographed line dance.

“We had no idea whether or not we were going to be able to have an in-person event,” said Kaeli Miller ‘21. “Because of this, we got such a late start on the planning and fundraising aspects of this year. Somehow we still managed to raise over $40,000 in four months. I’m still blown away!” 

The money from Stroudsburg’s Mini-THON and Mini-THONs all across Pennsylvania contribute towards the sum of Penn State’s THON, which will be announced to the world in February 2022.