Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News

As passersby peered in the Atrium of the Stamp Student Union yesterday, they may have seen the most surreal, dream-like sequence ever - a yellow hornet and a green egg and ham fighting for control of a Wiffle bat (and narrowly avoiding running into a brick wall) during a photo finish in a relay race.

The seemingly bizarre event was actually a pep rally the Asian American Student Union held for its fourth-annual charity Wiffleball tournament Thursday evening in the Atrium. The energetic night, which was attended by more than 100 members of various Asian student associations, sororities and fraternities, featured 10 teams in the tournament.

The center of the crowded atrium cleared as players from the Blue Spartans trash-talked members of the Yellow Hornets. In the center of the room, the teams competed in a series of relay races that incorporated Wiffle balls, Wiffle bats and agility - and plenty of loud cheering. And mascots, such as a girl dressed as a hornet complete with antenna, wings and a stinger, drew the crowd's support as well.

During the past few years, the AASU has raised thousands of dollars for select charities through the tournament. This year's charity of choice is the Filipino community development organization Gawad Kalinga. The phrase, means "to give care" in Filipino, is recognized by the United Nations as a model for poverty alleviation.

Ronald Gonzaga, a 2004 Maryland alumnus who has worked with GK, said the organization is so successful because it "pretty much helps people help themselves."

To promote the event, Gonzaga showed a brief video of the work GK is doing throughout Southeast Asia.

One of the main goals of the tournament is to build connections between the 21 Asian social groups which are scattered around the campus. To do this, the AASU makes teams by randomly pairing groups together.

"[It] makes you interact with people you might not talk to otherwise," said senior economics major Andrew Huang. For example, Huang's Yellow Hornets team consisted of the Chinese Student Association and the Vietnamese Student Association.

When the tournament was created four years ago, it was supposed to be a softball competition, but rain forced the AASU to switch the event to Wiffleball. The original event also pitted social groups against each other, as opposed to the current system which builds connections throughout the Asian-American community.

But now, the multi-group teams focus on the Wiffle ball. All games will be played in gyms in the Health and Human Performance Building this Saturday afternoon from 1 to 9 p.m., and the tournament is structured with three mini-tournaments.

abloom@umd.edu

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