The International Student Council hosted a fundraiser modeled after the popular Korean TV show “Running Man” for the first time April 5.

Ten teams of five competed against one another in different games to win the event and help the International Student Council reach their fundraising goal for a Sri Lankan primary school.

The event consisted of four stages of activities which were inspired by the variety TV show.

Participants started off with a short quiz round to get their starting points for the game stage and then proceeded to stage two.

Over the course of two hours, the teams tried to win different games in order to gain as many extra minutes for the elimination stage as possible.

Students had to fulfill tasks such as stacking 150 pennies in two piles, rolling hard boiled eggs through a race course and drawing objects for one team member to guess.

While each student had already paid a $3 registration fee at the beginning, teams could donate extra money to the cause during stage two, for which they would gain extra minutes for stage three.

“We wanted to do something fun and interesting that maybe hadn’t been done as a fundraiser before,” said Susan Beisel, council parade coordinator and sophomore in political science.

The gathered extra minutes were used in stage three, in which all but two teams were eliminated. Teams had to find three envelopes containing the clues for stage four in an auditorium filled with a lot of empty envelopes.

To add to the difficulty, only one team member could enter the auditorium at a time with 30 seconds to check as many envelopes as possible. In this stage teams could also donate more money to the fundraiser in exchange for clues to the location of envelopes.

The two winning teams moved on to the last stage and faced off in an elimination game until only one participant was left on the field, making his team the winning team of International Student Council’s first “Running Man.” The team received certificates for winning the first fundraiser of this kind.

“I was stunned,” said Onalie Ariyabandhu, council president and senior in economics. “Especially the participants were very enthusiastic. They were very excited about each game they played.” 

Members of the second-place team, Aqilah Hazian, senior in dietetics, and Dzulfadilah Dzulkefli, senior in political science, said that they had a lot of fun taking part in this event.

“We are great fans of the show ‘Running Man’,” Hazian said. “I wish it would come to the United States for an episode. But today I felt like being part of ‘Running Man.’ I especially liked the stage three game since it demanded strategy skills.”

Winning or loosing didn’t really seem to matter to the teams that much, said Ariyabandhu.

“Their motive was to help the cause. They were so exited to help the rural school in Sri Lanka,” Ariyabandhu said.

All of the money raised during the event will be used to buy a whole year of school supplies for the 270 students of the Gallaalla Primary School in Sri Lanka.

“The majority of parents who send their children to this aforementioned school work as tea leaf workers in tea plantation,” said Fang Hao Lim, council events coordinator and junior in microbiology.

Ariyabandhu will personally take the purchased school supplies to the children in her home country of Sri Lanka. She has been to the school before, handing out supplies from a donation not connected to International Student Council.

“It was a very emotional experience,” Ariyabandhu said. “The students showed us the highest form of appreciation that you can show by kneeling down and bowing to us.”

The “Running Man” charity event raised $200.

“It is making a difference in the world for the better, and isn’t that why we are here at school? To learn and use what we learn to benefit others,” Beisel said.