Written by: Michael DeMarshall and Mia Harrison 

Daniel Hadar is a first-year captain of THON™’s Photography committee. Daniel leads a group of 20 passionate committee members (CMs) and they chose the name Dan Francisco for their committee name. Dan’s responsibilities include, in his own words: “organizing shot lists, photographing all THON Events throughout the year, and ensuring the quality and timely manner of all photos being uploaded.” As a captain, he attends several meetings a week and runs a meeting of his own, relaying important information to his CMs and making sure they hit their deadlines. Because of the nature and responsibility, Dan has the privilege of working with almost every committee involved with THON. However, he works closely with the Social Media captains, and other captains and committees within Public Relations, including Promotions and Production. Outside of Public Relations, Dan works closely with Dancer Relations, Family Relations, and Special Events.  

Like many, Dan is very passionate about THON. When asked why he “THONs”, he simply replied, “I THON for the smiles and laughs of the kids who we get to impact on a daily basis.” As far as his specific position as a Photography captain, Dan loves being able to capture memories, and share his and “Dan Francisco”’s  photos of events throughout the vast THON community. He loves hearing feedback from families and THON supporters who are able to relive nostalgic moments through these photos. One of Dan’s fondest memories from THON, he says, was the Family Carnival from the 2020-2021 school year. Dan was snapping some photos when Owen, a Four Diamonds Kid, and some of our volunteers were playing games and having a good time, when Owen pulled him in to play with the rest of them. Dan spent the rest of his shift playing football, soccer, and other games with Owen and the volunteers, and created a memory full of happiness that he surely won’t forget for a long time.  

When asked to pick one favorite thing about being a Photography Captain, Dan said “getting to share the magic and spirit of THON through our photos.” Shortly after joining the Photography team, Dan realized how much of an impact the photos had on the THON Community since people started to express their appreciation for being able to capture memories on film. Something as small as capturing a memory within a picture can be a huge sense of happiness for Four Diamonds families and volunteers. Capturing pictures has become such an enormous part of THON, but the Photography committee is still working on new projects that are specifically geared towards developing more Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts within THON as a whole. Dan explained, “we have endeavored to further educate our CMs on the importance of capturing other populations and we even extended our event coverage in order to capture some of our working committees who are not always appreciated.” This is an awesome new step for all of THON to create a more welcoming experience and environment for everyone to get more involved. THON weekend is slowly approaching and Dan stated, “my two biggest focuses are on my committee and on THON Weekend.” The selflessness expressed by Dan is incredible because in that statement he shows that he wants to make sure his Photography Committee enjoys their time. Dan is looking forward to capturing some of the magic moments that will occur during THON weekend and he hopes that everyone can take mental images of what they see in the BJC to cherish for the rest of their life!