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Sorority mourns loss of Penn State student killed in car crash

Alumni of Penn State's Alpha Chi Omega sorority are mourning the loss of a member who was killed in a car crash over the weekend, launching a fundraiser in the memory.

Penn State said 19-year-old Vitalya "Tally" Sepot, a sophomore from Branford, Connecticut, died in a one-vehicle accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as she and six others were returning from collecting donations for the student-run THON charitable campaign.

The university's website says Sepot was a passenger in the car returning to State College from the Philadelphia area when the accident occurred Sunday afternoon in Charlestown Township in Chester County.

The six other students in the vehicle were taken to a hospital.

State police were investigating the cause of the crash.

Sepot was majoring in graphic design.

The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, referred to as THON, is a yearlong campaign to raise funds for the fight against pediatric cancer.

By Tuesday morning, Alpha Chi Omega's GoFundMe page had raised more than $22,000 and been shared nearly 5,000 times on Facebook.

"We cannot thank all our donors enough for the out pour of support that we have received. We hope to bring a little comfort to the Sepot family and the current members of the Beta Mu chapter through all the generous donations that have been made," a statement said on the page.

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