Raising a grand total of $20,544.51 for three charities, Archbishop John Carroll High School held its 8th annual PatrioTHON on March 4.

About 200 students and 15 adults participated in this event, which ran from 2 to 8 p.m. in the West Gym and the cafeteria.

Lizzy Hennessy, a junior, started the event by sharing her story in the gym.

“When I was a child, I was diagnosed with cancer,” said Hennessy. “Child Life Services [of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia] assisted me so much during that time and helped me feel like a normal kid. They made my time at the hospital the best it could be, and they would help inform me on what was going on with my body. Child Life Services improved both my mental and physical health. I want to thank everyone so much for coming to THON and supporting such a great cause!”

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the charities that will benefitted from the fund-raising event. Catholice Charities and Catholic Relief Services are the other two.

While Hennessy spoke, everyone was sitting on the gym floor. Once her speech ended, the countdown began for everyone to stand up and stay up for six hours to support the kids!

One activity that kept everyone moving was the morale dance run by Mia Arpea, Ryan Holmes, Maria Procaccini, and other members of the executive PatrioTHON team. Everyone met in the gym hourly to follow along with the team.

Students joined in plenty of other activities, too.  Raffles, dodgeball, corn hole, can jam, face painting, Wii, and basketball kept students occupied and on their feet. A ton of food was served, including pizza, chips, fruit snacks, candy, cookies, chocolate-covered pretzels, soda, Gatorade, and water.

The lights were shut off towards the night’s end, and glow-in-the-dark items were passed out. Everyone packed into the gym and danced to the songs blasting from the speakers.

“I kept queuing songs, and everyone just seemed like they were genuinely enjoying themselves and having a great time,” said Diego Santos. “Students were dancing, singing, and even the microphones were being used.”

At 7:45 pm raffle winners were announced. And at 8 pm the students who were a part of the patrioTHON committee raised posters with numbers on them revealing the total money raised for the kids.

Without the help of junior Bridget Grazel, these moments of collaboration and joy would not have been captured in pictures.

“I love taking pictures,” said Grazel. “PatrioTHON was an event that deserves to be remembered. I enjoyed taking pictures to capture all of the hard work put into this event and all of the fun my classmates and I had.”

Although the event didn’t start until 2 pm March 4, it really started months ago because of all of the hours of preparation it took to make this night possible.

Seniors Mia Arpea and Liz Woodland were this year’s PatriotTHON executive directors. They worked hand in hand with Spanish teacher Audrey Bourgeois and AP US history teacher/Assistant Principal for Student Life Mrs. Kate Buchanan.

The morning of Friday, March 4, students on the THON committee, student council members, and others willing to help during their study halls or lunch worked long and hard to set up for this fantastic night.

Colorful banners, balloons, posters, lights, and decorations were displayed through the gym and cafeteria as well as the hallway between the two. Everything displayed was created mainly by the students with help from Mrs. Bourgeois.

“It was so much fun being a part of making an event for such an amazing cause look so great,” said junior Taylor Wilson. “My goal in decorating was to make sure the colors used were as vibrant as possible since I felt that was necessary to convey the vibes of the event. I was disappointed I could not attend the event because of basketball, so I wanted to contribute as much as I could without actually participating in the night.”