Despite returning in full force, QTHON 2022 saw lower turnout and fundraising totals

In 2019, hearing about QTHON would conjure up images of a crowded Athletic and Recreation Center at Quinnipiac University's Mount Carmel campus. That year, Quinnipiac students raised $332,567.12 for Connecticut Children's Hospital.

Just three years later, the event raised almost $200,000 less. While the fun and heartfelt nature of QTHON remained, attendance was drastically down. Melina Maldonado, a first-year 3+1 media studies major, said that most of the people she saw there were required to be there as a part of a group.

"I feel like a lot of people who were at the event had to be at the event because they were a part of sororities or spirit groups," Maldonado said.

Marley McClure, the executive director of QTHON for the 2021-22 academic year, said that a majority of students have never experienced a QTHON that was not either virtual or hybrid, so they may not understand the heartfelt nature of the event.

"I think a lot of people on the Quinnipiac campus have never got the experience of QTHON," McClure said. "If you’re a senior and you didn’t go to QTHON in 2019, you’ve never been part of QTHON. If you were a freshman, sophomore, and juniors, all of them, have never been able to experience that QTHON. So they never really understood that magic and that spark QTHON in itself that day holds."

John Quinn, a junior nursing major, said that some students, particularly sophomores and juniors, never learned to care about QTHON and are no longer in the freshman period of willingness to try anything.

"I think that’s definitely kind of a deterrent," Quinn said. "Because you’re like, “Oh, well, why would I start now?” They’re not in that kind of mode that you are in as a freshman really trying to experience new things on campus and get involved in a ton of different organizations."

Jonathan Cappiello, a Quinnipiac alumnus, had a special connection to QTHON as someone who spent a significant amount of time in hospitals growing up. However, he understands why some students may not feel connected to the event.

"They did not get to experience an in-person QTHON, a traditional QTHON, until this year, which really, I didn’t feel like, it wasn’t able to give it the full effect," Cappiello said. "It wasn’t able to say, ‘Hey this is it. This is such an exciting day. Everyone from Quinnipiac goes, like it’s cool if you go too. And I think a lot of organizations are experiencing that."

Regardless of the money raised at the end of the day, McClure is proud of the work that herself and the rest of the executive board completed in the months leading up to QTHON.

"The total doesn’t reflect any of the hard work and determination that we’ve put in," McClure said. "This is the stepping stone to keep raising more money each and every year."