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Athlete hour -- where else can kids meet the Geico Gecko, Miss Pennsylvania and members of almost every Penn State sports team?
"It's awesome," said former Nittany Lions kicker and current Chicago Bear Robbie Gould, who signed autographs and took pictures with the kids. "As an alum, this is important to me ... it's the reason you're here, and it's the reason you come back."
Members of numerous Penn State sports teams, including football, men's soccer, women's volleyball, cheerleading and golf, met in the South Annex of the Bryce Jordan Center to entertain Thon kids with interactive games and arts and crafts.
Fifteen-year-old Kaitlyn Good, in her 13th year as a Thon child, smacked a ball rolled by a member of the woman's field hockey team.
Her mother, Suzy Good, said she was having so much fun on the floor that she didn't want to leave.
"Her wish was to take a tour of the football stadium," Good said. "But now she doesn't want to go."
The football team's booth was the most popular, and children lined up to have their pictures taken in authentic football gear.
Landin Thomas, who is the brother of Thon child Aaron Thomas, suited up with the helmet, jersey and shoes of an actual Penn State player's uniform.
Alex Smoker dribbled a soccer ball around men's soccer player Jason Yeisley as other soccer team members shouted encouragement.
"It's great to see them have fun," said Yeisley, who is participating in his second Thon.
Thon child Travis Hill slam-dunked a basketball into a net formed by a Penn State soccer player's arms, urging his human hoop to "stand up straight."
His mother acknowledged that the men's basketball team might have a new player in a few years.
"He and his brother both want to go to Penn State," she said.
Emily Wills, reigning Miss Pennsylvania, was also in attendance, signing autographs and posing for pictures with the kids.
Wills, a 2006 Penn State alum and the 2002 Miss Penn State, said she has previously participated in Thon as a member of the Penn State dance team. "It's nice to see Thon from the other side," she said. "Kids get a kick out of the crown."
Article reprinted from The Daily Collegian, referred to online as:
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