Students jailed for a good cause

During Homecoming weekend, many people were issued warrants and were sent to "jail." They hadn't really committed a crime, but they were in jail to raise money for the Crossroads Rehabilitation Center.\nAlpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity, sponsored their annual Jail-A-Thon. Members of the community were encouraged to issue a "warrant" for the "arrest" of their friends and family. They were then picked up and brought to College Mall -- the event's headquarters.\nTo make everything seem more real, the IU Police Department helped the fraternity by picking up the "accused" and transporting them to the mall.\n"We've always tried to assist in any ways we can with charitable organizations who try to have charitable activities like that … I think maybe it added authenticity to their activity," IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said. \nOne of the fraternity members acted as a judge and read the accused their sentence. The sentence included a certain amount of bail money to get out of jail. \nThe people who were sent to jail had two options. They could either pay the bail themselves, or they were given a phone book to call people to raise the money.\nLeah Portnoff, a senior and co-chair of the event, said the event was highly publicized. Letters were sent out to more than 100 businesses, and fraternity members were interviewed by local radio station B-97.\nThis is the second year APO has sponsored the event.\nThe fraternity received a grant from IU Student Association's Assisted Interorganizational Development department and an organization called Youth and Resources.\n"The challenge was to get the community involved," Portnoff said. "It was hard getting the participants. It was a hard concept to understand the idea of the Jail-A-Thon."\nNatalia Galvan, a sophomore and co-chair of the event, said APO wanted to bring the community together and help Crossroads.\n"We don't have a goal for raising a certain amount of money," she said. "We want to raise awareness about Crossroads because not many people know about it." \nMegan Hutchison, a junior and a co-chair of the event, said the fraternity chose to donate the money to Crossroads for several reasons.\n"They help infants to the elderly," Hutchison said. "They help them with many types of therapy and they enhance their independent growth."\nFour-year-old Quentin Cupka, a Crossroads graduate, attended the event.\nCupka suffers from velo-cardio facial syndrome. He started at Crossroads when he was six months old. Since then, he has gone through three major heart surgeries, and he suffers from hearing loss. He will have to undergo several more operations including one for his hearing.\n"He is their (APO's) unofficial ambassador," said Cupka's mother, Robin. "Crossroads have helped him so much. They taught him how to sign and socialize. I can't say enough about them and the efforts of APO"