Guinness Book of World Records.

On Friday, April 8, 2011 students at Drake University took on an epic feat. We tried to break a Guinness World Record. Starting at 10:00 pm, the Student Activities Board, Pahellenic Council, Interfraternity Council, Residence Hall Association, Student Senate, and countless other organizations put on an awesome event called Dogtown After Hours. Drake students stayed in, raised around $700 for Peak 4 Poverty, and participated in a bags tournament, danced their hearts out at the headphone disco, listened to the vocal styles of the "Brochal Chords," played "The Price is Right," and much much more. A core executive group of us had spent months planning this event and hoping for the best.

At 1:30 am in the misty, cold rain, students lined up outside of our student center to take on this immense challenge of breaking a world record. We needed 672 people to break the record. 

Panhellenic Exec Before the Fight

There were so many rules: each student had to have two pies, pies had to be thrown one at a time, the fight had to last for a sixty seconds, no one could touch the pies before the fight began. Failure to comply with those requirements would mean disqualification. Amazingly enough, no one wanted a single person to mess this chance up for us. Chants of "don't touch the pies!" could be heard across Helmick commons and down into the freshman quad. I was standing with Rachel, our VP: Programming and Panhellenic's representation on the Dogtown Executive Committee. We were so nervous. What if we didn't have enough people? Suddenly, students began cheering and running around the enclosed area sharing the news - we have more than 672 people here. We were then all told to pick up a pie. Everyone spread out across our fenced in area. A countdown began. "10...9..." I was cold, and had overwhelming thoughts of not wanting to get dirty and not wanting to get pie in my hair. "6...5...4..." But whatever. How many times do we get to have an actual pie fight? How many chances do we get in our lifetime to break a world record? It was time to throw some pies, and do it full out. "3...2...1!" All of a sudden, we went crazy. There was screaming, laughter, and pies flying everywhere. After pieing two of my council friends in the face, we bent down and picked up chunks of pie, and threw them at whoever we could find. At the end of our minute long fight, cheers erupted and paper plates were thrown into the air. We (unofficially) did it.

I really like my life list of goals because it's full of hopes and things that I want to do. But I think it's equally important for us to remember the things that we have done and where we have been. These things in our past have shaped who we are and they hold precious and beautiful memories. I have helped our student body band together to spend an entire night foregoing the bars and to do something crazy. I hold a world record, and I had a lot of fun in the process.