On Sunday, Feb. 4, there should have been people in the Fieldhouse upper gym battling it out for the coveted title of Gatorade pong Champ as part of the 24 Hours for Special Olympics event. Instead, the upper gym was completely empty by 2 p.m. when the event only started at 1:00.
From Feb. 3 to 4, the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) put on 24 Hours for Special Olympics, hoping to raise the most money for Special Olympics of Washington out of the other schools in our conference.
The 24 Hours for Special Olympics is a fundraising competition between nine schools of the conference. Each school can pick where and how they want to donate the money raised as well as where the fundraiser takes place.
This year is only the second year of the conference competition, but it is the first year that Puget Sound has done fundraising for the full 24 hours.
The events of this year included a raffle, pie in the face event, half-time events, and a Gatorade pong tournament.
The event this year was scheduled during the same weekend as Crossover day and Casino Night, which was put on by ASUPS. There were also multiple basketball games over the weekend.
Scheduling conflicts are suspected to be the cause of a lower than preferred participation. However, there were a total of eight professors, faculty, staff and ASUPS members in attendance to support the pie in the face event. SAAC also had support from varsity teams and coaches.
“Crossover and Casino Night did take away some attendance from the basketball games, but you can’t plan around everyone or you will never get anything done,” SAAC member Sarah Bicker said.
“The Special Olympics was chosen this year,” says Bicker, “because we as athletes find it very important to support other athletes. The athletes in the Special Olympics play for the love of the game and have so much fun no matter what the score is. It is very inspiring to watch them succeed and not let their disability get in the way of doing the things they love. It reminds us as athletes, if your heart is there you can do anything.”
