Hands, feet, spots, bodies everywhere

Kim Nelson

Right foot blue. Left hand red.

Everyone remembers playing it as a child. It’s Twister — the game that tests balance and tangles bodies together in the process — and it’s returning to Iowa State’s campus for Veishea.

ISU’s campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity is sponsoring the annual mass Twister fund-raising event that will take place on central campus following the Veishea parade on Saturday.

Proceeds from the game will go to Story County and Marshall County Habitat affiliates, said ISU’s Habitat for Humanity president Sarah Wisgerhof, a junior in political science.

Beginning at approximately 1 p.m., the event is expected to last through the afternoon.

For $1 per game, everyone is welcome to come and find a spot on one of the 100 Twister mats that will be on the ground, Wisgerhof said.

“We’ll be giving away prizes as an incentive to play,” she said. “First prize winners will get a Sony cordless phone or CD/radio, second placers will get gift certificates to Target and third placers will receive a t-shirt.”

Turnouts for Twister vary from year to year depending on the weather, said Sean Bayer, Habitat for Humanity public relations chair.

“Last year it didn’t go over well because of the rain,” he said. “But in the years before that a lot of people did it.”

This year, barring rainy weather, a good turnout is expected.

The mass Twister game is just one of many fund-raisers that ISU’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity does throughout the year.

Before Christmas, Habitat had a grab bag fund-raiser. For $2, people could grab a lunch bag filled with candy and another gift, like donated gift certificates from area businesses.

Some bags also contained larger prizes. Bayer said the group raised $400 at the grab bag event.

On April 9, Habitat for Humanity co-sponsored a sleep out under the Campanile with St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church to spread awareness of homeless persons.