Yet again, Penn State’s annual THON event, made the news with a record-setting year. Held over the weekend of Feb. 18-20, the event raised a total of $13,756,374.50, setting the record for the largest student-run charity in the world. This year was a special year for the event, as it celebrated 50 years in supporting the Four Diamonds Fund.
Yet again, Penn State’s annual THON event, made the news with a record-setting year. Held over the weekend of Feb. 18-20, the event raised a total of $13,756,374.50, setting the record for the largest student-run charity in the world. This year was a special year for the event, as it celebrated 50 years in supporting the Four Diamonds Fund.
It was a special year for former PA Theta THON child, Crystal (Castle) Muñoz, as well, who celebrated 24 years cancer-free at the end of January. Muñoz was diagnosed with leukemia on Sept. 6, 1995, and went into remission the following month. However, the battle wasn’t over quite yet. At the time, Muñoz had the highest white blood cell count that Hershey Medical Center had ever seen. A plethora of complications followed, as well as many experimental chemotherapy treatments, over the course of more than two years.
At the time of her admission into Hershey Medical Center, Muñoz was 11 years old. During the first full week of chemotherapy treatment, a group of Penn State students from THON visited the hospital. A group of morale captains for THON 1996 visited Muñoz that week, which included a Phi Delt brother.
“At this point, I didn’t really understand Four Diamonds,” Muñoz said. “I didn’t understand THON or any of that. But I do recall one individual in that group of students who just made funny faces and made me smile at the time. I didn’t do a lot of that. I was brand new to this whole entire cancer world.”
The Phi with the many faces was none other than Marty Duff ‘98. Muñoz and her mom later found out the former Nittany Lion had requested his fraternity adopt her as their THON child, as PA Theta was getting involved with THON at the time, but did not have a Four Diamonds Family.
Back then, THON didn’t hold many pre-THON events. They did a lot of stuff for students, but not so much for Four Diamonds families, Muñoz recalled. However, the moralers involved in the event decided to put on a pep rally at the HUB, which Muñoz attended.
“I was very shy at the very beginning, but that didn’t last very long,” she said. I remember, [the HUB] had those big windows with those big curtains, and they had window sills. I was sitting on one trying to hide. I didn’t want to dance or anything like that. Marty came up to me and convinced me to dance. Somebody snapped that photo and it ended up being on the front page of The Daily Collegian the next morning. I still laugh about that, because I tried to be shy, but I still got caught.”
Muñoz grew up in Denver, Pa., about two hours from Penn State. That gave the brothers an opportunity to pay her a visit in Christmas 1995. Jeff “JJ” Josephson ’98 and Brad Schultz ’97, who lived nearby, took a holiday break trip to see Muñoz and deliver her a stuffed Nittany Lion, which her youngest daughter, 10, still has today.
The original core of brothers close with Muñoz included Duff, Josephson, Schultz, Dan Feretti ’97, and John Bushko ’99. These were the brothers who saw Muñoz during chemotherapy treatment and when she was on steroids.
“I think that made a huge difference because you see the impact that it makes,” she said. “They saw me when I couldn’t walk, you know, they would help me to and from the car.”
At the conclusion of her chemotherapy treatments, Muñoz started one of the first-ever Mini THON’s at Cocalico High School in Denver, Pa., in 1999. She credits her drive to give back to the students she met during her treatment.
The brothers threw Muñoz a surprise 14th birthday party at the house in 1998, which ended up also being an “end of chemo party,” because her birthday was the following week. She was technically PA Theta’s THON child until her first year of college in 2003, passing the torch to Kallan Hammaker the same year.
Muñoz went on to film school in Orlando, studying film and photography. To this day, she pursues her passion for photography as a business on the side. Her career is in health insurance, building online platforms for benefits enrollment. She lives in Lilitz, Pa. The brothers even made an impact on Muñoz’s personal life.
