Dear ABBA,
The year is fast underway, and we are off to a great start for fundraising for THON 2023. After holding a few general meetings, we have gotten our members set up in Donor Drive and we have also been more involved in the broader THON crediting opportunities. Soon, we will be holding our annual Coin Wars Benefitting THON and selling Blue Band Calendars. We hope to hold more events in November when the semester starts to wind down.
With that, we would like to tell you a bit about our families for this year. We have been placed with two families this year: the Kayla Nakonechni family and the Dami Schmehl family. Kayla was a Penn State student and, after being diagnosed with cancer after dancing in THON, she graduated college and sadly passed away on October 14, 2015. We celebrated her with a Purple Out at Blue Band, since her favorite color was purple. Dami Schmehl was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012, but last year she was told that it is unlikely that it will ever return. We hope to support both of our families by sending cards, care packages, and even potentially visiting them!
We hope to begin building a community within our organization and getting more involved together. We would like to raise the importance of our family relations chairs, as the job they do is very important. We want to remain focused on our families. We recently had the whole band sign a card that was then sent to the Nakonechni family. These are the types of things we hope to be able to do for THON families. Although fundraising is one of the most important parts of THON, we hope to also provide kids and families special opportunities here at Penn State. We have agreed to participate in the THON Explorer’s program. This will hopefully allow us to give THON families an opportunity to explore Penn State outside of the BJC during THON weekend. We hope to provide them with a meaningful and lasting experience from the Blue Band family.
We would like to invite you to fundraise with us by sharing the Blue Band’s DonorDrive page with you. Using this link, you can donate directly to Blue Band Benefitting THON. Please note that your donation is benefitting THON through Blue Band’s organization. Thank you for your continued support of Band Together Benefitting THON!
Sincerely,
Justin Kim & Katie Baker
2022-2023 Band Together Co-Overall Chairs
