On September 6, 1995, Crystal Castle was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia at age 11. During the first few days of being in the hospital, Crystal had some new visitors. These visitors were Morale Captains for THON 1996. One of them, Marty Duff, was also a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Crystal was paired with Phi Delta Theta, resulting in a relationship that gave her “some of the greatest memories in her life”.
Crystal’s first THON Weekend was in in the White Building in 1996, and she was completely overwhelmed by the energy and amount of people. She returned to THON Weekend throughout her teenage years, watching the organization grow larger and more vibrant.
Over the next two years and four and a half months, Crystal battled cancer and completed treatment on January 28, 1998, just a few days before her 14th birthday. It was the best present she could’ve asked for.
Crystal continued to remain involved throughout her adult years and loved to experience THON through her children’s eyes. She’s spoken at THON events, and her family was featured in the promotion video for THON 2023.
In THON 1999, the first THON Weekend in Rec Hall, the theme was “One Step Closer.” Crystal could not sleep the night before and decided to write a poem for the Executive Director, Brian. She gave it to him when she saw him in the Human Tunnel. Brian had been struggling to come up with the words to open THON 1999 and decided to read Crystal’s poem on stage. In 2000, the videographer put together a video of different volunteers and dancers reading Crystal’s poem.
When Crystal reached 15 years of being cancer-free, she made a post on Facebook for the anniversary and tagged several fraternity brothers. At this point, she had three children, Layla, Logan, and Ava, and was going through a divorce. Luis Muñoz, a Penn State alumnus who had mutual friends on Facebook, saw Crystal’s post and friended her on Facebook. While at Penn State, Luis was involved in THON. He was on the Morale Team (now referred to as Dancer Relations) in 1997 and was a Communications Captain in 1998. He had friends in Phi Delta Theta, so he and Crystal had met briefly at THON Weekend years ago, while Crystal was in high school. After reuniting on Facebook, the two started chatting. Luis was also going through a divorce and had two children of his own; Ethan and Abby. Eventually, they got married and merged their families into one.
Before their wedding, Crystal was sorting through boxes of old THON memories from her teenage years. She found piles of t-shirts that had been signed, and Luis said he knew he had signed one all those years ago. Upon further investigation, Crystal found the shirt signed by Luis. Although the two didn’t know each other very well and did not know what their future held, Luis had written the message, “all the love in the world” for his future wife. Now, this t-shirt is framed in the family’s house.
The Muñoz family loves sports, cheer, and spending time together! They are currently in the process of visiting all 50 states. This goal was the idea of Crystal’s oldest daughter Layla, and now the family is almost done. “We visited Hawaii over the holidays in 2022-2023 which was 49,” explained Crystal, “now we just need Alaska!”. The COVID-19 pandemic interfered with some of the family’s travel plans, but since Crystal married Luis and gained a stepson that was Layla’s age, the family used this time to revisit many states so that their whole crew is caught up on all 49.
Layla was very involved in their mini-THONs in high school. Abby is a senior in high school and oversees decorations for her school’s mini-THON, and Logan is the leader of the Family Relations Committee for mini-THON. Logan was crowned “Mr. Four Diamonds” at their mini-THON pageant!
“I think my story is what got them in the building, but the THON Community is what inspired them to stay involved,” Crystal said.
Layla is now a sophomore at Penn State Altoona as a part of the 2+2 program. Crystal and Luis thought that she was going to go to the University of Denver and were already looking at places to stay and visit her when they woke up to an email with a subject line saying, “surprise!” It was a graphic that she had made of herself with the Penn State logo. Layla had said that Penn State was her home, and she wasn’t giving up THON.
Layla became involved in Penn State Altoona benefiting THON and is on the executive leadership board. Right after break, she was picked to represent Altoona as a dancer in THON 2025!
“When we found out Layla was dancing, I said that it was so amazing to me that when I was a volunteer, I was helping Crystal survive, which eventually made our family possible and now what Layla is doing is going to allow another family to have an experience like ours in the future” Luis said.
Crystal is over 25 years cancer-free! The Muñoz Family is excited to attend THON Weekend 2025 and support Layla while she stands for 46 hours.
“We have a little bit of a different story than most, because Crystal is now an adult and now our children are getting involved in THON. It’s a little bit different than what people think about when people think about THON,” Luis said.
To ensure that THON is able to donate 96 cents of every dollar raised to Four Diamonds at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, we heavily rely on donor support. These donations provide us the resources to create endless memories for our Four Diamonds families & foster a deep love & connection to our mission for our volunteers through Pre-THON Events, alternative fundraisers, & THON Weekend.
