Setting world record is goal

POTSDAM — People will be trying to throw their way into the Guinness World Records on Saturday.

It's going to take 400 bright yellow balls and more than 1,745 people on an artificial turf field, but Clarkson University's student government is aiming for the world's biggest dodgeball tournament. The event will raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation.

"A lot of the time at Clarkson we're seen as the crew who doesn't do a lot of community service, so we wanted to do something big," Clarkson junior Benjamin D. Laing said. "We're hoping we'll break the world record."

In September, students at the University of California at Irvine set the dodgeball record with 1,745 students playing the game, according to the Guinness World Records website.

As of Wednesday, more than 300 people had registered to participate, the engineering and management major said. The game, which has been named "Dodging for Dreams: The Ultimate Dodgeball Game," costs $2 a person, with all proceeds going to the Make A Wish Foundation.

"We kind of figured that the majority of our events go to the American Cancer Society; we wanted to do something different as a breath of fresh air," said Melanie L. Waldman, Clarkson University Student Association vice president. "Dodgeball is the game that we played as kids, so we wanted to do something that was child-related."

Though the student government had hoped to have more people registered ahead of the big game, the money is more important.

"It's a really big goal, but we're still confident that we'll make it," Mr. Laing said. "What's really important is that we're raising this money for the Make A Wish Foundation."

To entice people to sign up, Student Association members have been holding miniature dodgeball games in the forum in the student center. They also have been reaching out to SUNY Potsdam for participants.

Offices and departments around the campus have donated money to pay for the balls as well as the headbands that the players get to mark each of the teams. One of the bands is blue with a white logo — the charity's colors — and the other is Clarkson's colors of green and yellow.

The dodgeball game starts at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Hantz Field on Clarkson Avenue. Registration begins at 2 p.m.