Painting pumpkins for the Children’s Miracle Network

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University’s Guinathon organization will host the first Paint the Pumpkin event from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Heritage Park.

Guinathon is a YSU student organization for the university’s Dance Marathon program.

The park is near the basketball court and volleyball court outside Chick-fil-A on campus.

Dance Marathon programs are based on college campuses throughout the country and their most prominent goal is to raise funds and awareness for local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The CMN Hospital Guinathon raises money for Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley.

Last year was YSU’s first Dance Marathon, and Guinathon was able to raise more than $18,000.

“Throughout the year, we set out to raise funds and awareness on our campus through many smaller events, such as 80s bashes, Christmas parties [and] Twister tournaments,” said Erin Puskas, Guinathon morale manager.

Paint the Pumpkins is one of the smaller events.

Attendees can paint pumpkins, play corn hole, participate in a costume contest, enjoy snacks and witness Guinathon’s official fundraising goal reveal for this year.

But this small event will lead to the biggest event of the year, the Dance Marathon on Feb. 10, 2018.

“We [will] dance, play games, hear from and spend time with our Miracle Families who are familiar with Akron Children’s because of their own experiences, eat and have a blast for eight hours in celebration of all that Guinathon was able to do in the year of preparation leading up to event and of why we do what we do. It’s all for the kids,” Puskas said.

She expects both events to be a “smashing success.”

“All who are involved in Guinathon are extremely passionate about this cause, and our passion only continues to grow as we put on events like Paint the Pumpkin,” she said. “Our desire is that you join us on Wednesday the 4th so that you can see our passion for the kids at Akron Children’s Hospital in action, as we paint pumpkins, get students excited about Guinathon, see [YSU] President [Jim] Tressel show his enthusiasm for our cause by attending, enjoy snacks, hang out with our Miracle Families and announce our previously unknown-to-the-public fundraising goal for this year.”