By BJ LEWIS

Staff Writer

Tech’s Gamma Alpha Chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order held its 5th annual See-saw-a-thon last week to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The fraternity is about $2,500 into their goal, with more donations expected to come from businesses, even though the see-saw-a-thon is over.

“We sent [donation letters] out late,” Cole Tucker, the president of Tech’s Kappa Alpha Order and a junior electrical engineering major said.

“I don’t know how much we’re going to end up getting. “We’ll continue getting donations from the companies for the next week.”

The fundraiser has been held in front of the baseball field for the past two years, but due to construction, the 72-hour event had to be moved to the median in front of Shoney’s at 1401 North Trenton Street.

The fraternity also changed how they did the fundraiser, Tucker said. “[In the past] each member would get a sponsor who would pay a set amount for each hour they seesawed,” Tucker said.

“I don’t think they raised nearly as much money [last year]. We just started see-sawing [this year] and asking for donations, and I think it worked out much better.” The goal for this year was $10,000, Tucker said.

“We sent out 600 letters to businesses in Ruston, Minden, Shreveport and West Monroe to ask for donations,” Tucker said. Each business that donated had their name on the sponsor board the fraternity displayed during the event.

The change in scenery has worked out well for the fraternity because the new site was in an area with higher traffic. “It’s a great location, and the community is responsive,” Kevin McCoy, a junior biology major, said.

“[But] it’d be a lot better if we could get more Tech students involved.” The see-saw itself was larger than it has been in the past. To build it, the organization made use of its engineering major members to construct the massive see-saw that was seven and a half feet at the fulcrum and held the occupants 18 feet in the air at the highest point, Tucker said.

Construction began at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and finished 2 p.m. Wednesday. “We just got the engineering majors and the guys who knew how to weld, got a bunch of metal and just did it,” Tucker said. The original design was done by one of the engineers and the plans were amended by the other six in the fraternity. Evan Marshall, a junior mechanical engineering major, said it would not have worked if each of the engineers had not helped with the see-saw. “This is the first year it was all metal,” Marshall said about structure concerns for the see-saw. “It’s enormous. We have to worry about welds breaking or support.” It turned out perfectly; a work and event they can be proud of, Marshall said.