Maria Lamagna’s first canning trip for THON was to Rockville, MD, nearly
200 miles away from her home in Allison Park, PA.
“I was the only freshman going, so I was a little nervous,” Maria
said, who has only missed one canning trip in three years since. “Everyone
really talked up canning trips, so I was just really excited and anxious.”
And Maria wasn’t the only one a little bit worried.
“I remember being a little anxious with her being a freshman
and going to stay at someone else’s home so far away, so we had a lot of
questions,” Pam Lamagna, Maria’s mom, said.
Canners and their families alike have reason for concern.
Who are canners staying with? How will they get there? Will
canners be safe where they can?
Fortunately, like many other first-time canners, Maria’s first
canning trip was a success. And now, when thousands of canners spread out
across Pennsylvania and surrounding states for THON’s canning weekends, Maria
doesn’t always go far away from home. Instead, she’s brings canners to her hometown.
“We thought it was a great idea for her to bring people here
to can,” Pam said. “We’re happy that she asked us.”
Maria’s most recent canning expedition, in which 17 other
chemical engineers from AICHE joined her, was her third canning trip home in as
many years.
“My parents are very social, so they love the idea of us canning
here,” Maria said. “We’ve hosted one time every year since my sophomore year.”
Of course, when 18 college students arrive at the Lamagna
doorstep once a year, hungry and exhausted from a near three-hour drive from
University Park on a Friday night, you’d think the Lamagnas might be a little
bit overwhelmed.
Not Maria’s parents.
Two homemade pizzas were waiting for the canners on the
dining room table last weekend, and the Lamagnas, who run their own family cheese
company, took requests for the rest of the night.
“We got here, and brought our bags downstairs,” Doug Marple
said, a first-time canner. “Her parents were already making pizza, great pizza,
whatever you wanted. They had green peppers, white pizza, banana peppers,
anything. We were well fed.”
The Lamagna household has gained such a reputation for its
Italian food and an abundance of games that canners affectionately call it the
Dave and Busters house.
But all of this just for one canning weekend?
“We look forward to this,” Rudy Lamagna, Maria’s dad, said. “We
try to give them whatever they need.”
The morning after the Friday night festivities in the
Lamagna home last weekend, the canners ditched their comfortable confines and canned
in Maria’s hometown, but a few challenges have arose for every canner in the last
year. Among those challenges, agreed Ana Duggan, Kate Foster and Alison
Filippellei, were negative reactions from a minority of potential donators.
“We really believe in this cause,” Ana Duggan said. “We’re
doing this for kids with pediatric cancer.”
Unfortunately, negative publicity for Penn State has
unjustifiably reached THON, but canners say that they try to ignore hecklers.
“I think a lot of people appreciate what we’re doing,” Maria
said. “Usually people just say thank you and donate, so we don’t pay attention
to any negative reactions toward us.”
Overall, Maria and her group of canners raised
$3,341.54 for the Four Diamonds Fund last weekend.
“I’ll miss this so much,” said Maria, who only has three
canning trips left to take before she graduates in April. “I look forward to being
on the other side of canning, too, and donating to kids when I’m an alumnus."
