Postponed dodgeball fails to break record

Inclement weather Thursday forced IU’s Samaritan’s Feet Club to reschedule its dodgeball game to Friday, leaving little time to publicize the change.

The organization wanted to break the world record for the largest dodgeball game, which currently stands at 2,012 people, while raising money for shoes for children around the world who cannot afford them.
 
“It was unfortunate that we had to cancel on Thursday,” club President Broderick Thompson said. “It was really hard to postpone it until Friday and still get people to come out, especially with finals week coming up.”

Vice President Mary Carter estimated that about 100 people showed up.

“It wasn’t as good of a turnout as we wanted it to be,” Carter said. “It wasn’t what we expected, but it was a good time.”

She said those who were there played two rounds of dodgeball.

This failed attempt at breaking the record follows a previous attempt in August, when about 700 people showed up to play.  

“The timing was just unfortunate with that rain on Thursday,” said Michael Rolland, co-creator of Btownmenus.com and contributor to Samaritan’s Feet. “I think that took a lot of momentum out of this.”

Carter said another attempt may be made at some point in the future but that decision would be up to the club’s incoming executive board.

“It’s a shame to see that we haven’t succeeded in breaking this goal yet,” Rolland said. “I think we just need to go back to the drawing board and figure out a different way of approaching getting the student body really excited about this.”

Despite the weather and lack of participation, Carter was positive about what the organization accomplished with this event.

“We still fulfilled our purpose, and that was to give back to Samaritan’s Feet to help provide shoes for kids around the world who didn’t have any,” Carter said. “We were able to provide shoes for kids, so we actually got what we wanted.”