Whether your way to study for finals is at Parks library or getting a coffee at Caribou, on Wednesday you’ll see a very unfamiliar sight.

The lawn in front of Parks Library will be occupied by the Iowa State crew club. The club will be hosting a 24-hour fundraising rowing event.

The club will be using indoor rowing machines to make this possible and will be raising money to repair their eight-person boat. The club uses this boat to practice and to compete in events during the season. Needless to say, this fundraiser is pretty important to the team.

The clubs boat was damaged last fall during a practice while rowing on the river. The team punched a hole through the bottom of the boat when they crashed into a rock under the water. As you can imagine, this was a huge set back for the team.

While the club does have other boats, most of them are only four-person boats and none of their eight-man boats are in good enough condition to compete in a competition. So, getting carbon fiber to repair their boat for a competition is their main goal.

“I thought it was insane,” Evan Mellott said when he first heard about the 24-hour event. “But it fits into the lifestyle of being in crew. We do lots of things out of the normal. We row in extreme conditions and we’re a tough group of people.

“I think this is a good example of that.”

Mellott has been part of the crew club all throughout his four years at Iowa State. While Mellott has never been a part of this kind of fundraising event before, the idea is not entirely new to the club.

This 24-hour rowing event use to be a yearly event for the team. However, the low number of members led to the club holding back on the event for a few years. Now that the club is growing in numbers and the recent need for funds, the executive team decided it was the right time to bring back the event.

Each of the crew members will be taking 30-minute shifts during the 24 hours. Two members of the club will row together while other members will be there to talk about the club and facilitate raffle tickets and donations.

The raffle tickets are used for people to buy to have a chance to win prizes that the club has gotten donated to them. The club has received donations from nearby businesses and even some on campus. These places include the Iowa State Bookstore, Freddy’s, Casey’s, Insomnia cookies and many more.

“We put out a letter stating who we are, what we have been trying to do, and what the money was going to go towards,” said Kyle Wendt. “So, the ball was kind of in their court if they wanted to donate or not.” 

Wendt is the club treasurer and handles the funds and the fundraising of those funds. Wendt was the one who looked back in budget and saw the records of these events back in 2010. Wendt and the rest of the club are hoping that the event is successful so that it can return to its annual form in the future.

While fundraising money for the boat repairs is the main focus of the club during this event, the team also wants to get their name out to new people and hopefully gain members for the club in the future.

Zachary Streuber, a junior who joined the club during his freshman year, joined by word of mouth by one of his close friends. He knows from experience just how important it is getting the word out. Streuber explains that considering this event a success would be more than just reaching the monetary goal.

“As long as we get that recognition out — that’s also something we’re shooting for,” Streuber siad. ”We’d love to get other people involved and make people aware of the sport.

‘So just creating that awareness would be a win for us.”