VALPARAISO | With water balloons flying toward him, Valparaiso University's T-shirt-clad provost designate Mark Schwehn performed a split-leg leap, then ducked like George W. Bush at an incoming shoe.
"Schwehn's awesome," one student said from the crowd gathered to watch Tuesday's water balloon fight to raise money for a project in rural southwest China.
President Mark Heckler removed his shoes to take part, but kept his sport jacket and slacks on.
"I decided to take a risk and hope their aim was as bad as mine," said Heckler, who captained the winning team. Heckler sustained one hit and a wet pant leg.
The fundraiser was one of a series of "Shui 2 Go!" events organized by the student Social Action Leadership Team this semester. It's goal is to raise $15,000 toward a sustainable, gravity-fed water pipeline in China's Yunnan province. The project will bring drinking water year round to a village of 900.
"Shui," pronounced "shway" is Chinese for water. The slogan was meant to play off the saying "way to go" and water's symbol H2O, said SALT officer Abby Lange, a junior from Champaign, Ill.
Lange, the last woman standing on Schwehn's team before being hit by a balloon, said SALT raised $700 towards its goal by threatening to cancel the balloon fight with top administrators if student donations didn't roll in.
VU Associate Pastor the Rev. James Wetzstein, who serves as SALT advisor, said the program's core goal is to teach students grass roots fundraising and other community organizing skills -- "how to take a good idea and organize people around it."
