Think ’80s. Think “Jessie’s Girl.” Now picture five guys in an oversized living room singing the following lines to a group of 30 college women:

“We play along with Dolphin Daze, even sing you a sweet serenade. You know, we feel so nervous ’cause you’re all lookin’ cute. We wanna out-sing Farmhouse, but the point is probably moot.”

Poetic, isn’t it?

Not just the song, but the whole moment.

It took four years to do it, but I finally made my sorority serenading debut.

It was all part of Dolphin Daze, a week-long competition sponsored by Delta Delta Delta.

A few friends and I decided it would be fun to enter a team and take on the twenty-some fraternities competing.

As it turned out, we weren’t the only independent team. In fact, a group from People’s managed to beat us in the serenade. (See if People’s ever gets any Daily coverage again.)

Dolphin Daze kicked off Tuesday with a brutal dodge ball tournament.

I was the king of dodge ball in high school, but apparently, so was every other guy.

This was a little different though, because there were no brainy shy girls to throw the ball at, which was always the fun part in high school.

But, I reenacted Billy Madison’s “You’re all gonna die” line and took the court like a raging bull.

We lost. Bad.

Our team of six guys didn’t stand a chance against the 10 players from the other team. I guess sometimes quantity beats quality.

Well, Wednesday was darts and pool night and once again, we lost.

And in flag football — even with Chad “The Round Rocket” Calek as quarterback — we lost again.

So Dolphin Daze wasn’t easy, but it was definitely a good time.

The way our guys pulled together to re-write “Jessie’s Girl” and Third Eye Blind’s “How’s It Going To Be” was like no other college experience I’ve had.

I felt like Weird Al trapped in a “Facts of Life” episode. But I felt good.

Even though we weren’t exactly Sinatras, the girls cheered us on and made us feel welcome, something we weren’t expecting as “non-greeks.”

After the gist of Dolphin Daze was over and my dodge ball wounds were healed, I ran into a friend from The Nadas who had just finished playing a show for the Dance Marathon.

When I asked him how it went, he said, “You know, I really wasn’t that excited about it, but after we played, they showed a video of the people we were raising money for and at the end was a kid who had died since when we played Dance Marathon last year, and it really made me remember why we were there.”

It was then that I remembered why Dolphin Daze exists. It is a philanthropy, which means “raise money for a good cause” in animish.

Each team in Dolphin Daze had to pay a $50 entry fee, which went entirely to the hospital of a five-month old boy in Nebraska with a rare cancer.

I know with the whole Dartmouth situation there has been debate about the need for fraternities and sororities. Participating in just one of the dozens of the greek system’s philanthropies has made me realize there is a need.

From mud volleyball to haunted houses, the greek community in Ames puts the fun in fundraisers. (I should write slogans for a living.)

I encourage everyone to participate in as many philanthropies as possible.

Just watch out for the guys singing Rick Springfield, ’cause Dolphin Daze 2000 will be ours.

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Corey Moss is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale.