Gallery • 36 Photos

Maci Jordan

Norristown Area High School’s National Honor Society held an extremely eventful Mini-THON last Friday in support of families battling childhood cancer. Once again partnering with the national organization Four Diamonds, the National Honors Society hosted the event for the second time in Norristown history. Improving upon last year’s success, the club established an even greater sense of community at this year’s event.

By the night’s end, the National Honor Society(NHS) announced the event had raised $11,759.05. Though it was a little short of what was raised last year, this money is still a significant contribution when it comes to funding the research to fight the battle against pediatric cancer and helping the families involved.

This year featured more games and bigger prizes for the raffle baskets.  Children were running around to different games like Connect Four and Tug-of-War.  The more popular events included volleyball and dodgeball tournaments, which plenty of attendees signed up for. 

 At 7:20 pm, the entertainment made its way to the gym for performances. Norristown’s drum line went first and brought an energy that energized the crowd. Other performances included the Sabor Latino Dance crew and the Color Guard. The food, which was donated by local businesses, was in the gym lobby this year, which was a great choice made by the NHS. 

“The process of preparing for Mini-THON requires lots of hard work, time, and effort we were very proud of,” said senior Esined Martinez-Torres, the NHS President who helped put together the event. 

Martinez-Torres was one of the many Honor Society students to spread the word about Mini-THON to the community and teachers in order to gather donations. The National Honor Society aimed to have a better turnout this year. You could sense that there was more organization and preparation this time. 

Emily Plummer, who was the Mini-THON chair and planned this event was “persistent and determined,” according to Martinez-Torres. 

“There were a lot of different parts to it and we had to make sure everything was organized and fun,” said Martinez-Torres. 

There were plenty of new additions to the Mini-THON this year, such as new group performances like the K-Pop dance group and Jazz Band. There was also a photo booth run by Jim Batty Photobooth and Fun Fieldz who donated their time and materials so that more could go toward the Four Diamonds as well.  

Senior Logan Hendricks, also a member of the National Honor Society believes that this Mini-THON was better than last year since the NHS knew what to expect. The past Mini-THONs will only help to better the next. 

“In terms of figuring out what was going on last year it was definitely hard, this year I’d say we were way more prepared,” said Hendricks.

Maddie Plummer, a Norristown Class of 2022 graduate now attending Drexel University, showed up to show her support and was impressed with the turnout and amount of community involvement.

“There are way more community members and it’s great that there are younger kids here,” she said. 

Mrs. Colloton, co-advisor for the National Honor Society, was thrilled with the success and impact Mini-THON produced this year. 

“This year’s event was truly awesome,” said Colloton. “We had amazing donations which, means more of what is raised goes towards global efforts in cancer research and the families of the Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey.  The students secured donations from local businesses and eateries and were able to provide water and a snack to all who attended.” 

The impact of the Mini-THONs all around the K-12 community was astounding, and it’s great that our school and students were able to be a part of it an organization that ended up raising over 15 million dollars and counting in the fight against pediatric cancer just this year. 

High School students who attended the Mini-THON applaud the National Honor Society on the amount of effort put into the event. Senior Andrew Reyes was one of the students who thoroughly enjoyed Mini-THON this year. He came to show his support and participate in some of the tournaments that went on that night, many of which he thought improved from last year. 

Senior Micheal Harvey, came with his friends and brother to show his support, he also attended Mini-THON last year and had similar ideas as Reyes. 

“I love the tournaments, especially the volleyball ones. The food is great and you can tell they put a lot of effort into this one,” said Harvey. “It’s really cool and definitely an upgrade.”

With another successful Mini-THON down in the books, the support from local businesses and the community really shows that Norristown can come together for a good cause. If you didn’t attend this year, definitely attend the next one to enjoy food, and games, and leave knowing that you did a good thing for someone’s family and something, as Four Diamonds expresses, For The Kids.