Community Impact

March 5, 2025 | George Velky

UConn Students Are Ready for 26th Annual HuskyTHON

Candygrams, raw eggs, hot sauce: Anything for a good cause

Students link arms at HuskyTHON, looking out at a crowd holding up their phone lights in the darkened field house.

HuskyTHON is a chance for students from all across UConn to come together for a great cause (courtesy of HuskyTHON).

Thousands of UConn students will dance for 18 hours straight to raise money for the Connecticut Children’s Foundation on Saturday, March 8 at the Hugh S. Greer Field House. Over 100 organizations on campus participate.

“HuskyTHON is an unimaginable organization because of the show of community and pride for something way bigger than ourselves as college students,” says Izzy Casais ’25 (CLAS), vice president of communications for HuskyTHON. “It’s not always about fundraising; it’s about the connections you can make with these children and their families.”

The fundraising campaign carries the mantra “Change the Tide” this year, Casais says. “It’s really just about changing the trajectory of children’s health and creating that lasting change. The momentum, the teamwork, the small wins is what we refer to.”

Raising money and awareness is a year-long process that leads up to one dance-filled day on campus. Casais says the HuskyTHON Management Team begins its campaigning in June, ten months before the big day.

Last year, UConn students raised a record $1.73 million for Connecticut Children’s. The funds raised support the Connecticut Children’s Greatest Needs Children’s Fund, which provides resources for immediate necessities at Connecticut Children’s.

Students on stage at HuskyTHON, including members of the men's basketball team.
At last year’s HuskyTHON, participants included members of the 2024 NCAA men’s national championship basketball team (courtesy of HuskyTHON)

Casais says that Greek life is usually responsible for a significant portion of the money raised. Last year, Delta Zeta Sorority was the top-earning group, with roughly $59,000 raised. “Our goal is really just to fundraise as much as we can,” says Nicole Fedor ’26 (CAHNR), dancer representative for Delta Zeta.

It’s not just Greek organizations involved. “Club sports are involved, and the D1 sports teams are involved. You can even just make your own team with your friends,” Fedor says.

Groups on campus use different strategies to raise money. “We usually do an event called Hot Ones,” says Jason Giambertone ’26 (BUS), the dancer representative for Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. The fraternity orders the hot sauces from the YouTube series Hot Ones. Members ask friends and family to donate, and the more money each person raises, the spicier the sauce they must eat.

Giambertone says the group also arranged a raffle this year, with prizes including cookies from Dueling Grandmas Shortbread, a hat signed by the national championship-winning men’s basketball team, and gift cards from local businesses.

“It’s a little bit tricky getting a bunch of college guys to raise money for an event like this,” says Giambertone. “There’s no way around it, but there are ways to motivate.” Last year one of the members raised $600 by eating raw eggs. Giambertone says it helped members realize they could contribute to the cause using less serious methods. Giambertone himself shaved his head in a fundraising effort. “I only did it for $75, but it was kind of an avalanche. I think by the end of the day I had raised about $450.”

Delta Zeta uses prizes like gift cards to incentivize its members to fundraise, says Fedor. The sorority sold candygrams for Valentines Day, which included a few pieces of candy and a message. All proceeds went directly to the cause.

The management team sends out cause connection videos, which Fedor says helps raise awareness for the sorority. The videos show stories from families involved with Connecticut Children’s and how HuskyTHON has benefited them. “I feel like the more of those videos we show our team, the more everybody is motivated because they realize exactly where the money is going,” Fedor says.

The Day of Strength this year was Wednesday, Feb. 26: the day when the management team, made up of 32 members, got together to see the total raised so far. This year’s total was $451,516.94, an increase over last year’s total of $373,000. “We don’t set a monetary goal,” says Casais. “It’s always as much as possible; any amount of money is going to make a difference; we just do what we can.”

The event is more important than just raising money, organizers say. It gives kids from Connecticut Children’s an escape for the day. “When I was little, I always looked up to the older kids. It meant so much more when they gave me special attention,” says Fedor. “Getting to hang out with older kids for a whole day and just feel normal and feel special, means the world.”

Fedor and Giambertone both say the best moment of HuskyTHON is the Circle of Hope. Every participant is given an entry bracelet at the start of the day, which looks like a hospital bracelet. At the end of HuskyTHON, all the participating students gather in a circle, and everyone gets their bracelet snipped in a ceremony to celebrate the movement and show support for the families involved.

Two students embrace on the dance floor at HuskyTHON.
After 18 hours of dancing – and for some, nearly a year of planning and preparation – students feel the positivity and sense of accomplishment from raising money for children in need (courtesy of HuskyTHON).

“I looked around and literally every person around me was crying,” says Fedor. “I realized how many people are really touched.”

“You put in 18 hours. You’re exhausted, you want to eat, and you want to go home, but all of that turns into this raw moment of emotion realizing that you really accomplished this great thing,” says Giambertone. “You made someone’s life better for four hours today, and now you get to do it all again next year.”