Beginning last Thursday at noon and continuing for 24 hours, students rode seesaws for charity on Driscoll Lawn.

The annual event known as the See Saw-A-Thon is sponsored by the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and raises money for Campfire USA, an organization that helps send underprivileged kids to summer camp.

Although the official numbers are not yet available, the sorority estimates that they were able to raise about $5,000.

The men’s winner was Zeta Beta Tau and the women’s was Tri Delta.

Money is raised through donations, raffle ticket and T-shirt sales, as well as a fee to participate in the see-sawing.

Traditionally the event was for Greek organizations only but beginning last year it was opened up to any organization that was willing to pay the entry fee.

This year, five new organizations joined the festivities.

The debuts included: the business fraternity Alpha Kappa Pi, the Alpine Club, Campus Crusade for Christ, Men’s Club Hockey and a fraternity that is not currently recognized by the university, Zeta Beta Tau.

Dana Beckwith and Christi Ratto, philanthropy chairs for Gamma Phi, were responsible for making the event a success.

“Overall we thought it was fun and met our expectations,” said Beckwith. “The only problem we had was some guy trying to pick a fight with me and the president [of Gamma Phi].”

A small verbal argument was the least of the administration’s concerns though.

Last year there was excessive drinking on the lawn, injuries and even one case of setting a see saw on fire.

The night before the event last year, some of the fraternities moved their seesaws to the lawn in order to be ready to jump right on them the next day when the clock struck noon.

Tyler Proops, a former SAE and suspended DU student, took particular offence to the Theta Chi seesaw that sat innocently in front of his fraternity.

“I went out there with a bottle of gasoline and figured I would invent a new way to roast marshmallows,” said Proops while shaking his head.

He proceeded to douse the seesaw in gasoline and strike a match.

Once he set the fire his mischievous fun ended abruptly.

Proops explained, “I saw how high the flames were and went right back into SAE to call the fire department.”

Although no one was injured in the blaze, the school’s brand new lawn was scarred and Proops was held responsible to the tune of a two-quarter suspension.

Despite added security, students still said that they had good experiences.

“See Saw-A-Thon is always a good time,” said junior Yusuf Malik, current AUSA vice president. “Students always look forward to it and it is a great ending for May Days.”

The only complaint seemed to be an orange fence that was put around the lawn in order to monitor the students, it created only one in and out entrance for added security.

“I think students felt restricted by the fence,” said Malik.

On the other hand, no one complained about the concert put on by Kinetix, a DU student band that plays regular gigs at Herman’s Hideaway and many other campus events.

“Kinetix was definitely the highlight of my night,” said junior Gina Foianini. “They played a great set.”

The See Saw-A-Thon is not only a party but it is also a competition.

The teams are judged in four categories including participation, longevity – meaning how long an organization seesawed, donations and creativity.

This year’s event was such a success that there are ideas in the works to make it even bigger for next year.

“We are trying to work with other organizations like the senate to make improvements for next year,” said Beckwith. “We have a meeting with DUPB this week to see if they want to work together to make it even better next year.”

Although there were concerns that the event would not even happen this year, it appears that its success cemented it again in the traditions of the University of Denver.