Name: Jessie West
Hometown: Glen Mills, PA
FOTO cred: Danced in THON 2015, Fundraising Officer 2014-15, President 2015-16 and 2016-17
Jessie West here! Former FOTO pres/dancer/fundraising officer/ tyrant/ inner THON hater/older sister to chubby brooks and annoying Jenny/keeper of RJ
What does FOTO mean to me? What a question that everyone in this crazy family has their own but somehow unique answer to. FOTO to me is more than an organization, it’s more than family, it’s more than friends, and money raised, and relationships with the Knaper’s, Eslingers, and Trámels. FOTO, to me, is identity. It was the single most defining factor in my life for years. I couldn’t remove FOTO from my identity anymore than I could remove my mom or my dad. It will forever be a part of me, a part that taught me so much in so little time.
If you let it, FOTO will be that for you. It can shape your world and your life in ways you could never have imagined. It can give you moments that will just pop into your mind years later and put a smile on your face. It will give you the chance to make real change, to feel yourself doing something important and know in that moment you are where you’re meant to be. It might be on a retreat, when someone says something that seems like the funniest thing you’ve ever heard, it might be watching someone smash an egg on their face at a meeting, it might be a stranger at a ribbon sale telling you how proud they are of you and giving you donuts, it might be watching your total grow and grow throughout the year and then seeing the surprise on everyone’s face THON weekend when it gets revealed, it might be getting a freshmen to spontaneously stay in preline for 5 hours and then watching that same idiot become president 3 years later, it might be Logan looking up to you and saying, “if I don’t have cancer anymore will FOTO still be my friends?” during his last spinal tap, it might be giving a dancer a piggy back ride and feeling your legs shake with resilience knowing the families are looking up to you.
It might be all of those things and you never know when you’ll have those moments, so show up and take it in, go to every single event, look at the things you’ve already accomplished, and just know you’ll be able to do even more because you have your family right there by your side! Ok that’s enough sap for me I love you all!
PS from a former pres - do pre line - it’s a huge deal!
