A couple posts back I mentioned Reilley and Eddy Barringer, who were raising money locally for Pennsylvania State University's efforts to conquer childhood cancer.

The final step in their year-long effort was this weekend, as thousands of Penn State students packed the school's basketball arena for a 46-hour dance marathon. I wanted to pass along a quick update.

Collectively, The Daily Collegian reports, Penn State students helped raise $10,686,924.83 for childhood cancer treatment and research. That's a record high.

Kathleen Barringer, Reilley and Eddy's mom, told me the kids raised just shy of $5,000 by holding a coin drop and Italian dinner earlier this month.

"This was enough to put their organization's total higher than last year's and they held on to fourth place among the hundreds of Penn State organizations raising money for THON," she wrote in an e-mail.

Add a few hundred canning drives like that around the country and it's not too difficult to see how they got to that number.

Another Penn State student newspaper, Onward State, did a neat video where they slapped a helmet cam on one of the dancers. It starts just shy of the final reveal and gives you a pretty good idea of just how excited the kids were – and what you contributed to if you donated.


Kathleen and her husband drove down to State College to be a part of THON weekend. Her e-mail popped into my inbox early this afternoon, as she and her husband were driving back.

"We are wiped out," Kathleen wrote, "but the weekend was beyond inspiring."

Until next time,

MC