THON 2016 Total Revealed: Did Halting Canning Hurt Fundraising Goal?

Penn State's THON 2016 ended Sunday afternoon with its fundraising total revealed amid the signature cheers and exhausted exaltation among too-tired-for-words students fresh from a weekend of nonstop dancing and a year of persistent fundraising—all in the name of helping children with cancer.

But make no mistake, things were different this year. Very different.

THON endured a tragedy that claimed a student's life. In response, organizers curtailed THON's signature fundraising tactic—canning trips in which students fan out across the state to solicit untold hundreds of thousands toward the annual multimillion-dollar fundraising goal.