2008 Woodie Awards
SEALfest kicks off end-of-the-year bash
Phil Hass
Issue date: 5/14/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Raffles, dunk tanks, sumo wrestling, a band and wax hand molding were all on hand at the first annual SEALfest.
The Intra-Fraternity League and SEAL teamed up for the event, and while SEAL was using the event to give students one last hurrah, the League was raising money for the PLGA foundation, a cancer group working to find a cure for Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytomas, a type of brain tumor.
The Intra-Fraternity League was raffling off items such as an iPod, a bike, a $300 paintball group game pass, food gift cards for local restaurants and even a gift card for free food for a year from Taco Johns. With inflatable sumo wrestling suits and a dunk tank, the guys of Phi Chi Epsilon were having plenty of fun.
Scotty Stuessy, a sophomore and member of the fraternity, was running part of the fundraiser with other members.
"This has been a lot of fun to work on," Stuessy said. "We had all of these things donated from local business and people and the raffle has been going well. We've been having fun all day here, especially watching my brothers getting dunked in the tank over and over."
Senior Charles Busch was there with Stuessy throughout the day helping the proceeds.
"It's really a lot of fun to do this sort of thing," Busch said. "Every single dollar we're raising today is going straight to the foundation; we aren't keeping a single cent."
Despite so many neat and new prizes on hand, the raffle tickets ended up not selling very well.
"We had a lot of people here throughout the day, but they seemed more apt to put money in the donation jars than to buy tickets," Stuessy said. "A bit confusing to me, but at least we're still raising money."
While not raising money for the PLGA foundation, SEAL provided plenty of entertainment and food to students. They even flew in a band from New York named Derek James and the Lovely Fools.
With the 2 guitarist performing acoustic songs all day on their stage and playing many classic rock hits and even some original material, many people were quick to dance and sing along with them.
Senior Jimmy Pellizzi was the SEAL coordinator for the event and was happy with the turn out.
"We wanted this to be one big, final blowout for the students," Pellizzi said. "We know that exams are coming up and that students are all so stressed and tired, but we wanted to give them food, entertainment and music as a way to keep their minds off school, even for just one evening."
SEAL's entertainment for the evening, besides the band, was a trick of making wax casts of your hands. You would first place your hands in ice water they had by the table and then dip them into a container of hot wax, making a cast of your hand in blue.
"The wax casting turned into a big hit for us," Pellizzi said. "Everyone really seems to like it, and making these casts is pretty fun to students."
Sophomore Matt Vercauteren was there to try his luck at the dunk tank.
"I love these things, it's just fun to knock people into the water," Vercauteren said.
With one dollar getting you a throw and three dollars for five throws, students were lining up to attempt to dunk one of the Phi Chi Frat boys, and when one got dropped, everyone cheered.
"It's events like this that make school fun and make people realized they're gonna miss this place all summer," Vercauteren said.
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