Public relation majors are putting on an event this Saturday and Sunday to help promote the University Center’s Warhawk Alley. The events are Warhawk Alley Olympics and The Warhawk Strut.

The events are a part of a semester long group project for the Public Relations Tactics II course.

The two groups both had to spend their semester planning, promoting, recruiting and getting sponsorships to make the events all worthwhile, as well as get the support they needed to help promote Warhawk Alley.

Juniors Alysha Rendflesh and John Davey are two of the PR students helping to make one of the events, The Warhawk Strut, possible.

Rendflesh said the project is perfect because it is hands on experience in the field.

“It is different than just going to the University Center and watching presentations,” Rendflesh said. “It is a way to get students involved in the cause.”

Each group meets twice per week and assigns each member different roles for the project.  One of the jobs of the project was to find sponsors, which helped them raise money for the events and get the prizes for the contestants.

“I made sure to go all over town to find sponsors, including the radio station,” Davey said.

The Warhawk Strut is based on the reality television show “The Amazing Race.”

Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, 20 teams will race to finish 10 obstacles along the way.  Each team will consist of two people, and requires a $15 entry fee per person. The first-place team will win the grand prize of $200 worth of Purple Points.

“When I talked to people, they seemed really enthusiastic about it,” Rendflesh said.

The Warhawk Alley Olympics, which will be held the following day on Sunday, involves five courses each team will have to complete in the fastest time in order to win.  First they will start with bag toss and make their way to the finish line by answering trivia questions.  Along the way, they will also have to complete games such as bowling, billiards and ladder golf.

The competition will involve teams of four people and an entry fee of $10 per person, which helps go to the multiple prizes awarded after the obstacles.  The grand prize, awarded to the team that comes in first place, is $300 in Purple Points.

Second through fourth place teams won’t go home empty handed though, as prizes such as gift certificates will be handed out thanks to the sponsors the students recruited.

After the events, a pizza party will take place down in Warhawk Alley for all the participants who will also leave with a free T-shirt, which includes names all of the sponsors supporting the event.

Rules will be set for each of the events. All participants will not be able to use their cell phones when the events are taking place and must work in groups of two, ensuring each person will be able to race to the finish, complete their challenge and go onto the next station as fast as possible.

To finish their projects, the students will be putting together a video after the events are finished.  They will be putting together a documentary on what they did throughout the whole process and interview each of the group members who were involved in putting together the promotional events.

“We’re going to be working with Channel 19 to make sure that our video looks professional,”  Davey said.

Sign-up will take place in Warhawk Alley until April 12.  Sign-up opened on Monday, so there is plenty of time to get your teams together.  For any questions, contact Kara Amundson at [email protected].