Feeling a little under the weather? Want to study a just a little more for that huge afternoon test? Just don’t feel like going to class? Look no further. Weinberg freshman Kathy Lin has it covered.
“I’ll take notes and get them to you, or turn in homework, but I won’t do homework or take tests or quizzes,” Lin said. “I’d prefer big lecture courses, not discussion sections where I have to participate.”
But Lin isn’t just being nice. The $7 an hour that she charges for this service is part of an endeavor to raise money for the 31st annual Dance Marathon, one of Northwestern’s largest philanthropic events. As one of 500 dancers, Lin is expected to raise $750 with her partner. So far, Lin said she hasn’t gotten many customers.
“Nobody’s really taken me up on it,” Lin said. “I’m waiting for Winter Quarter when people are more lazy.”
Lin’s scheme is just one of hundreds of ways that DM participants acquire funding. Various ideas thrown around by Lin and her peers in Jones Residential College even included the notion of a talent show, pooling all of their performance talents, but that idea was scrapped for being too difficult.
Education senior Melissa Borschnack, DM executive co-chairwoman, recalls witnessing wacky fund-raising for the event even before she was a student at NU.
“I must have been in high school, because I remember wondering what was going on, but I saw this girl in this huge pink hat on Michigan Avenue just drawing so much attention to herself (while canning),” Borschnack said.
Borschnack said the most popular methods of acquiring funding are canning and letter campaigns. On canning dates, DM dancers stand in various public venues wearing yellow bibs and trying to collect whatever money they can for DM. Dancers also are encouraged to write letters to family and friends asking for donations.
“It’s really impressive how much you can get if you just get $1 from tons of people,” Borschnack said. “At the last football game, I raised like $130 within an hour.”
Communication junior and Dancer Relations co-chairwoman Jenni Maple said some people like to showcase special skills when thinking about creative ways to earn money.
“I knew someone freshman year who knitted things and sold them around Christmas,” Maple said.
Some of the most fruitful canning can occur at unlikely places like frat parties, she added.
“I guess drunk people dish out more money,” Maple said.
Reach Kristyn Schiavone at [email protected].
