Our Mission
Atlas is a Special Interest Organization at Penn State University. Our club of college students spend the entire year focused on THON and its mission. Atlas was founded in September 2005 on the "Atlas" floor of Atherton Hall at Penn State - University Park. The founding members, which included, Matt Sterling and some friends, wanted to get involved with the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON), without having to be a member of a club sport or the Greek System. In its inaugural year, Atlas was paired with the Victoria Smith family and raised a little over $26,000. We have only grown from there! The following year, we more than tripled our fundraising total and became the top independent organization.
In 2010, Atlas was lucky to be paired with the Claire Brobson family. That same year, during THON 2011, Atlas continued its high status and was the highest-fundraising organization. Just a few days before THON Weekend 2012, Atlas was fortunate to be paired with the Amarie Gerena family. In 2015, the Brobsons made the decision that they wanted to see Atlas be paired with another family, officially un-pairing with Atlas to become a legacy family. Atlas' relationship with them did not change, but it gave us the opportunity to apply for a new family. Atlas was paired with our fourth family, the Samir Norton family before THON Weekend 2015. In 2018, we were again lucky enough to be paired with our fifth family, the Anthony Garcia-Ramos family. After a few more years of perseverance and great strides, in 2024, Atlas was once again given the gift of being paired with our sixth family, the Isabel Schuster family. Atlas continues to watch our THON kids grow to be strong and healthy!
One of Atlas' most defining features is the pink fuzzy hats. It all started when our first family the Smiths told us the story of how when they were watching the THON Livestream one year, they couldn't see our organization due to thousands of people in the Bryce Jordan Center during THON weekend. At the same time, Victoria had a favorite blue fuzzy hat she wore all the time. Jokingly, they said we should all wear pink fuzzy hats like Victoria's so we would be easier to see from far away. The next year, the entire club was wearing pink fuzzy hats. The tradition has continued, and now we are known as the club that wears the pink fuzzy hats.
