Murrysville native ‘truly gained a family’ through Penn State THON
Share this post:
Penn State’s THON initiative — raising money to support the families of children affected by childhood cancer, culminating in a 46-hour dance marathon at the school’s main campus — sounded like a lot of fun to Emily Vannatta of Murrysville.
The 2015 Franklin Regional graduate, who now lives in Arkansas, remembered her mother talking about THON from her days as a Nittany Lion.
“It was a small thing when she went there,” said Vannatta, who is now Emily Vannatta Vaughan, having married in May.
Little did she know, her experience with the family she’d meet through her work with THON would lead to 6-year-old cancer survivor Mina Horan taking part in the wedding as Emily’s flower girl.
Vaughan joined THON her freshman year as a member of the Phi Sigma Rho sorority, with the goal of eventually running for a leadership position. Her junior year, she became chair of THON family relations.
“You can apply to symbolically ‘adopt’ a family,” she said. “The family we’d had since I started, their son was eight years cancer-free at that point, and we wanted to adopt a second family and try to help get them to that same point.”
Through Four Diamonds, a Hershey nonprofit associated with Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, Vaughan met Mina and her mother, Megan Torres, of Schuylkill Haven.
“Emily was one of the first people to come to our house,” Torres said. “It’s such a ray of light in a dark time. The kids were complete strangers, and from the second they walked in the door, it was like family.”
Vaughan helped coordinate THON volunteers to meet with Mina and accompany her to treatments, regularly spoke with Torres and set up summer trips with THON students.
“Then, my senior year, I got to be down on the floor at THON to dance with Mina,” Vaughan said.
Six months later, Mina would get her chance to ring the bell, THON’s way to signify that a child is officially cancer-free.
“It was really cool to stand there freshman year wanting to help a child, and then get to be down on the floor senior year, seeing Mina having successfully gone through this process,” Vaughan said. “She was just so positive the entire time, and she was really funny in the stories she told. She called us her ‘Penn Steak’ friends.”
That led to Vaughan asking Mina to serve as flower girl at her wedding, held May 8 at Lingrow Farms in Gilpin.
“I told her I still needed a flower girl, and she said, ‘So you mean I get to wear a pretty white dress?’ I’m pretty sure she thought it was her wedding from then on,” Vaughan said.
Torres said she’s not sure students such as Vaughan realize the impact they have on families and the role they play.
“I’ve always explained THON and the people we’ve been paired with as the closest thing I can relate to God’s love,” Torres said. “Even the cute little care packages they’d send for Valentine’s Day or Mina’s birthday, it’s always a reminder of our friends and the bond we’ve built.”
Vaughan, who graduated from Penn State in 2019 with a biomedical engineering degree, said it holds similar meaning for her.
“It wasn’t just something to do at school. Mina just started first grade, and I got to see pictures of her first day of school,” she said. “I really, truly gained a family through THON.”