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Mini-THON event kicks off at CMMS

MILL HALL -- Central Mountain Middle School held their space-themed Mini-THON event to raise money for Four Diamonds.

CMMS teacher and Mini-THON Club Advisor, Christina Onuskanich welcomed students to the gymnasium for the event and explained a little bit about why they were there.

Four Diamonds is an organization on a mission to conquer childhood cancer through Mini-THON events that support the nation's leading laboratory and clinical research programs to better prevent, diagnose, treat and cure childhood cancer. In the U.S., 16,000 children under the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer each year -- one child about every 33 minutes.

Decorating the walls were the names of Central Mountain students who either survived or lost their lives to childhood cancer. The walls read, "We dance for Alex Bartlett, Vhito DeCapria, Aiden Fowler, Austin Irish, Courtney Jarrett, Alex Johnson, Andi Motter, Logan Myers, Zachary Rogers and Curtis Stover."

Following her introduction, she introduced three students who would be the first to get their hair buzzed for the "No Hair, Don't Care" campaign. Sixth graders Jason Fowler, Jack Crawford and Easton Wallace all lined up to get their hair buzzed off in front of their classmates.

Rarity Havener, fifth grade, also got her hair buzzed in honor of her grandmother who had been diagnosed with and died due to cancer before she was born.

"I want to support people who have cancer," said Rarity, who received applause after talking about why she wanted to donate. As her head got buzzed, her friends and classmates chanted her name.

Also getting their hair buzzed were 7th graders Brysen Boob, Alexander Page and Devon Westbrook.

Following the "No Hair, Don't Care" buzzing, students had a dance-a-thon that began with the "Cha Cha Slide." A conga line also made its way across the gymnasium, with easily 30 students participating.

The event will continue until 8 p.m. with numerous guest speakers including Steph Bieber, Tiff Jarrett, Noah Benner and family and Tom Whitehead.

There will be more hair donations made by Arabella Onuskanich, Tenleigh Hill, Bella Bower and Mrs. Onuskanich herself.

There will also be numerous space-themed games including "Defying Gravity," "Moonrock Scramble" and the "Rocket Bean Bag Toss."

Live performances will continue well into the night, including a Pep Rally by Central Mountain cheerleaders and the Wildcat, a performance by the Central Mountain Twirlers and a performance by Jason Dumm.

Throughout the night there will be dance-a-THONs with various line dances such as the "Cupid Shuffle," the "Cotton Eye Joe," the "Macarena" and more.

CMMS recently held a "stall day" coin counting event where students were encouraged to bring in loose change from home (with parental permission). While the Mini-THON committee members counted and packaged the coins, no classes could occur.

By the end of the school day, they still hadn't managed to count all of the coins. They had counted out a total of $4,660.34 in coins

The next day, students stood outside of Dunkin Donuts with collection jars and raised an additional $555.

With these totals in mind, CMMS is almost halfway to meeting their $20,000 goal.

The total amount raised will be finalized and announced at the end of the event on Thursday.

If you wish to help CMMS meet their goal, you can still donate until June online at fourdiamonds.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=4190