Charity organizations aspire to break world dodgeball record

One thousand two hundred students at the University of Alberta in Canada broke the Guinness World Record for the largest game of dodgeball in Feb. 2010.

Now, IU students are looking to double that number in the biggest dodgeball game to date.

“I realized that we could break the record at IU to help kids around the world who don’t have shoes,” said senior Broderick Thompson, co-president and co-founder of the Samaritan’s Feet chapter at IU, the organization planning the game.

The event will be at 4 p.m. Sunday inside  IU’s Memorial Stadium, and students are asked to donate a dollar to participate. All of the proceeds will go to Samaritan’s Feet, a non-profit organization that gives shoes to children all over the world who go without.

“We started a club, or chapter, here at IU to support the organization,” Thompson said.
In order to participate in the game, students should arrive at 3:30 p.m. for check-in and should wear a “cream” or “crimson” colored shirt.

If more people wear red shirts than white shirts, however ...

“Then the red team gets an advantage, I guess,” Broderick said.

Samaritan’s Feet is not the only group involved in the event. Btownmenus.com jumped on board to help raise money for the less fortunate.

“We want to do big philanthropy projects throughout the year,” said Mike Rolland, co-founder and president of marketing at btownmenus.com. “We’re at the point where we like getting involved in the community as much as possible.”

Rolland said he hopes that using Btownmenu’s brand name in marketing the event will help spread word about the cause.

But why raise money through dodgeball?

“I know a lot of people think of getting hit in the head during dodgeball,” Rolland said. “But most sports you can’t organize like that. Not as many people could play. I think it’ll be a friendly game."