Written by: Erin Duffy and Claire Nguyen  

During THON™ Weekend, dancers spend time to reflect and remind themselves on why they THON and why THON is important to them. We had the opportunity to interview Sean McMennamin, a senior, majoring in mechanical engineering, dancing for Delta Chi. He was able to open up to us about why he THONs and some fun things about his weekend!  

Q: Why do you THON?  

A: “I THON because of everything that’s going on right now. I’ve had problems in the past with cancer; just dealing with it in my family. I had a 35-year-old cousin who passed away unfortunately, it’ll leave his wife and three kids behind. My dad dealt with prostate cancer and thankfully for me he has been cancer free for the past four years, so that’s obviously something that’s very fortunate for me in my life. But after seeing all of that trauma and all of the pain that it caused in my family, I don’t wish that upon anyone else nonetheless children because these children have such bright futures and so much ahead of them and its a shame to see them have to go through these burdens that they should never have to go through. Just being able to stand here in solidarity with them and the families that we’re apart of and just being here to represent the people that have passed in order to honor them and continue their legacy just means the world to me! Doing this is taking an opportunity to be a part of something that’s bigger than me and bigger than anyone else in this building – that is why I THON!”

Q: What are you looking forward to the most this weekend?  

A: “Honestly, I’m just looking forward to all the emotions that’s brought into it. I mean looking around, I’m here with a lot of my friends, three of them actually, so just being around them and seeing everyone in the stands and seeing everyone in the stands and how everyone is going react and just all the emotions that go into it: the ups and downs, the tiredness, the excitement – I’m just here for all of it. Just being able to be a part of it is going to be awesome!”

Q: What’s your favorite thing in your fanny pack? 

A: “My favorite thing in my fanny pack is my disposable camera, it’s kind of like a digital camera. I’ve had it for years now and its always been the best thing to bring around just to be able to take pictures. They look old, and that’s the type of film I like.”

Featured Image: Kiley Canimore | THON™ Photography