Fundraiser puts barbeque sauce, smiles on faces

NOVEMBER 21, 2011
By Sara Morano ’14, Contributing Writer

Furman students are notoriously polite, but there were elbows on tables and napkins off laps last night in the Paladen food court for Chi Omega’s “Wings for Wishes” event.

These breeches of etiquette were excused, though, because, after all, it’s hard to mind your manners when you’re all bibbed up and racing eight other guys to eat 20 chicken wings before a cheering crowd.

A team of two Furman baseball players secured victory by employing strategy that, to the lay crowd of wing-eaters, among them Jenna Macnair, looked like, “They were just shoving entire wings their mouth and spitting out bones.”

With such technique, it took the winners just under four minutes to polish off their sauce-covered wings. The almost 300 other guests, however, ate their buffet-style chicken wing dinner at a more relaxed pace, dropping in to dine and mingle in the University Center during the two-hour event.

In addition to the wing-eating competition between five teams, entertainment was provided by an NFL game playing in the Gauntlet recreation room.

The combination of wings and football is not new for the sponsor, Wild Wings restaurant and sports bar in Greenville, but it is a new fundraiser for the Chi Omegas.

Philanthropy Chair Jessie Wolfinger spoke enthusiastically about the ticket sales. Proceeds from the event will support providing a ticket, through the Make-A-Wish foundation, for a trip to Disneyland for an eight-year-old boy with a terminal heart condition.