Mini-THON: In Depth
Photo Courtesy of Mini-THON
Mini-THON members pose for a group photo. The club's next project is the virtual GooseChase scavenger hunt which will take place starting on Jan. 18.
Aika Orshybek, Staff Writer
Throughout State High's history, there has always been a multitude of students with kind and compassionate hearts. Despite the challenges everyone has had to face this year, those people continue to persist, and many of them are members of Mini-THON.
Mini-THON focuses on helping those in need and incorporates their four-diamond values–courage, wisdom, honesty, and strength–into all they do. State High's Mini-Thon Executive Director, junior Emma Benoit, explained the club's mission and what it stands for.
"We raise money for Four Diamonds, which is an organization that helps with paying medical bills for childhood cancer and research for childhood cancer," Benoit said.
With the pandemic taking over the world, there have been some difficulties the club has had to face.
"We have to communicate with the families specifically who have children working with Four Diamonds, and it's been harder this year to be able to reach out to them, because they're going through a lot right now too, and their children need to be more cautious during these times. So we're trying to make it clear that if we want to work with them it'd be over Google Meet but it's not necessarily easy to communicate," said junior Alexa Adams, Overall of Mini-Thon's Dancer Fam.
In addition to having to change how they communicate with the families, Mini-THON has also had to change the way they raise money for them. With COVID-19 restrictions, they were not able to hold movie nights, car washes, or charity concerts, as they had in previous years. So, they had to get creative. They held various other fundraising events such as Stall Day, Texas Roadhouse Fundraiser, and, now, the upcoming GooseChase Scavenger Hunt.
This year's scavenger hunt fundraiser is a new addition to the club's typical fundraisers. While it promises to be entertaining, it will also keep the entire State High community involved and will not risk students' health nor safety.
"We have been wanting to do something to get the whole school involved with Mini-THON, and not necessarily be a part of Mini-THON. So we thought an all-school activity would be a really good idea," Benoit said.
The Mini-THON virtual scavenger hunt will take place virtually on the GooseChase app starting January 18th.
Mini-THON welcomes everybody interested in spreading kindness in the community. The club holds meetings every Monday at 6 p.m. and the link can be found on their SCASD website page. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the Executive Director Emma Benoit at [email protected].
Aika Orshybek is a freshman at State High, and she's really excited to learn more about journalism!