Onward Upward Challenge Set for Saturday

When four Penn State students graduated in 2003, they caught the philanthropy bug from their involvement with the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) and decided to keep the momentum going.

The group decided to start their own event at home, and so the Onward Upward Basketball Challenge was born. This year's event will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at . Twelve teams will compete in a five-on-five tournament style fashion.

Tim Chiodo, Adam Gentzel, Randy Whiteside and Joe Worley were involved with THON through their fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order, and other related positions, then Adam Mills and several others joined in 2005 to help out as well. 

Since its inception, the Challenge has raised roughly $159,479 for the Four Diamonds Fund, the beneficiary of THON. Each team must raise $1,100 to compete, but they are encouraged to raise more.

They also take pledge donations online at www.onwardupward.com. This year's amount will be included in the final total, announced at THON on Feb. 19. Last year the student-run philanthropy raised $9,594,880.17.

After this year, the tenth for the tournament, Mills said the group is going to do a different type of fundraiser like a 5k or a 10k.

"It's kind of bittersweet because we've done it for so long now," Mill said. He added that something like a race has no limits on participants so the group felt they could raise more money, while the tournament is basically maxed out. 

Community members are invited to come watch, and this year the group is planning to have more kid-friendly activities so keep families entertained.