Brittany Ballantyne
Equinox Staff
“You have a minute to win it, good luck!” was shouted continuously at the Minute to Win It event put on in the Night Owl Cafe Thursday, Oct. 6. It was here that contestants participated in six different games, each one with a time limit of one minute. In only 60 seconds, participants performed unusual skills. Headbands were tied to contestants with pedometers as they whipped their heads back and forth and toilet paper rolls flew through the air into hula-hoops. Among other objects that were put to use, there were ping pong balls, pennies and cans, tissue boxes, and tennis balls. This event had the same motives as the TV show “Minute to Win It.”
Not only was this event all fun and games, but the Student Involvement LLC’s first event on campus. Julie Lessard said that the purpose of this organization was “a way for people with the same interests to live together, bounce ideas off each other, and work together to have a purpose on campus.”
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Lessard said she feels this group gives students leadership opportunities and when asked why the LLC put on this event, she said, “It goes along with the same reason, getting these people living together would be useless if they weren’t doing something. It not only betters our lives but does things for people on campus; you don’t have to go off campus to find something to do.”
Erin Zoellick, also of the LLC, translated what she believed the purpose of the LLC is. “It brings students with similar interests to do programs about that interest.” Zoellick explained that there are different suites for each LLC group and one of the requirements members must follow through with is becoming involved in one or more organizations.
“They want people to go above and beyond and get out of their rooms – to be actively living,” Zoellick said.
This event had been in the making for about a month, according to Zoellick and Lessard. They had worked hard to reserve the NOC, “researched all of the games on the show’s website, we [they] wrote up the rules, put up the sign-up sheets, ads, made posters, made a Facebook event…word of mouth was really helpful with this event. We [they] worked on getting this event ready for when the students got here, having it all ready to go,” Zoellick said.
For each game a contestant won they were rewarded $10. Some players won as much as $50, winning multiple rounds and a free Minute to Win It t-shirt made for the event.
Laughter erupted throughout the audience and the cheering escalated and continued throughout the night; shrieks occurred as the games became more silly and goofy. The seconds whizzed by on the TV screen as the friends of participants mimicked the challenges their buddies had to complete. Some contestants went as far as stretching prior to their game to be certain they were ready for each task. Music intensified the hype and rush of each game as songs such as “Ya’ll Ready for This” bumped through the speakers.
Viewers pumped their fists in the air, shouted out words of encouragement, and squirmed during games where tennis balls flew close by. The very first game was won, and many more wins followed. No players left empty-handed; some players shocked themselves, as well as others, at how fast they completed their challenges.
The challenge called “shoe fly, shoe” required players to fling shoes across the NOC room onto a table. Audience members volunteered and tossed their shoes to the players and stayed involved during the game with their shouts. The first shoe that was successfully thrown onto the table made the crowd even more rowdy. Sneakers and boots nearly took event staff members out and more roars of amusement filled the NOC.
The challenge that seemed to cause the most noise was a game where a tissue box filled with just ping pong balls was strapped to a contestant’s waist. The object of this game was to empty the tissue box of all the ping pong balls by dancing and not using one’s hands to clear out the box. Event staff members cheered players on and their faces displayed excitement and anxiousness. Countdowns added to the craze and arms shot up into the air once a challenge was complete in glory.
KSC student Bonnie Chalmers who participated said, “It’s always fun to actually participate in an event someone’s putting on on-campus, and winning money!” Chalmers is involved in both an LLC group and SAC and plans on attending multiple events over the course of this year.
Another player, KSC student Brandon Carta, said, “I lived in LLC’s last year and it was nice to see them on campus for once, I thought it was awesome.”
He also said that he liked how the event was like “a real game show we all know how to play…they made it as real and accurate as possible.”
When asked if she felt KSC had a lot of student involvement on campus, Lessard said, “Yeah! I mean if we compare it to the number of people on campus…I think there are opportunities for involvement on campus. There’s over 150 clubs or something crazy like that” and later said “I think people need to reach out to those who are shy about doing these things, I think involvement isn’t just being a part of a club but going to activities as well – you’re still involved. You don’t have to sit in and do homework or go out partying.”
When Zoellick was asked the same question she said, “Yes and no, I feel like the people who are involved are involved in multiple things. You’re involved with a lot or not involved at all. Once you get involved, it’s easy to do more things.”
Lessard was asked what she would tell students about getting involved on campus and she said, “I’d say that it’s fun! It’s fun and you meet new people and you do things you maybe didn’t think you’d do in college; you surprise yourself.”
“It’s such a great way to meet people and to broaden your horizons and to make your experience that much better at school,” Zoellick said.
On concluding the night, Lessard said, “With it being our first time being a program out here together, I think it was going smoothly and towards the end I think it was great” and said that “our LLC took on the challenge of taking the program out of Pondside 3 and onto the next level.”
Brittany Ballantyne can be contacted at bballantyne@ksc.mailcruiser.com