Ben LippertSenior Reporter

Some college students will do anything for a free meal, and this week all they had to do was dress up like a hobo. Hundreds of SDSU students bummed a free meal Oct. 20 for this year’s annual “Bum-a-Meal” event.

Fraternities, sororities, clubs and residence halls participated in the event. The teams could earn team spirit points by dressing up like a hobo and eating a free meal from a host family or organization in Brookings.

“All we say is just be outrageous and don’t hold back,” said Courtney Dardis, the special events coordinator for University Program Council. “I appreciate the people that dress up; it makes it all the more fun and memorable.”

Robin Bickel, the Grand Pooba and homecoming coordinator, said Bum-a-Meal is “an event that gets overlooked sometimes.”

“Cavorts and Miss Homelycoming have built a name for themselves,” Bickel said. “Bum-a-meal is an old tradition, but it’s not something that incoming freshmen have really heard about.”

Bickel said UPC has been working hard to push participation in Bum-a-Meal this year.

“That’s our goal as a programming council, to make it more well-known,” Bickel said.

Bickel said UPC received help from SDSU faculty to make the event a success. Professors from different departments, as well as The Union employees, opened their homes to the hungry hobos.

Tim Goldammer, a senior hospitality major, was one of those hungry hobos.

Goldammer is a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, which participates in Bum-a-Meal every year, and always with strong numbers. Goldammer attributes his fraternity’s four-year reign of domination in the Hobo Week activities competition to the Bum-a Meal-event.

“On average we might get 500 to 600 points throughout the whole week,” Goldammer said. “This is an event that could potentially get you 100 or 200 points by itself. That’s pretty big when it comes to the grand scheme of things.”

Teams can actually be stripped of points if participants aren’t in hobo attire. Goldammer is making sure that does not happen this year.

“I’m wearing a ripped suit coat, which is a throwback to Chris Farley’s big man in a little suit,” Goldammer said. “You always gotta throw some dirt on the face, not because hobos aren’t clean, but because I like some dirt on my face.”

Earning points is rewarding for Goldammer, but spending time with his fraternity brothers is the real perk.

“It’s good to get together and eat a meal,” Goldammer said. “For us it’s a brotherhood thing and getting to hang out.”

When asked what he would get for winning the points race at the end of the week, Goldammer said, “Pride.”

#1.1717733:3657262023.png:Hobo-Meal-BW.png:Jeff Hughes gets into character in preparation for Bum-a-Meal by eating spaghetti dressed as a hobo.:File Photo