“Trashed” is a five-star event com­ing to cam­pus that will enter­tain stu­dents into think­ing about how alco­hol may be affect­ing their lives.

Wendi Fox is a for­mer high-risk drinker who now makes a liv­ing off of her enter­tain­ing stand-up com­edy acts that focus around alco­hol and the impact it can have on people.

“The pro­gram is designed to focus on alco­hol aware­ness and how stu­dents can enjoy their col­lege expe­ri­ence with­out com­pro­mis­ing their safety,” said Allissa Witucki, assis­tant direc­tor of Student Leadership and Activities. “The pur­pose of the event is to give stu­dents a fun but edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ence when it comes to deal­ing with drinking.”

“Trashed” is not a lec­ture to stu­dents on why they shouldn’t drink. It is an attention-grabbing per­for­mance that aims to entice audi­ence mem­bers to think about their lives and inspire pos­i­tive change.

Fox uses a vari­ety of meth­ods to inter­act with and pro­voke her audi­ence, includ­ing enter­tain­ing and amus­ing anec­dotes, ask­ing sig­nif­i­cant life ques­tions, and using her own expe­ri­ences with alco­hol to relay mes­sages of per­sonal knowledge.

Ross DuMonthier, sopho­more in the pre-optometry pro­gram, said, “I would def­i­nitely attend this event. I think that tak­ing an approach like this will be good and get more peo­ple inter­ested. It seems like it would bring out more stu­dents with the inten­tions of it being fun and informative.”

Senior in psy­chol­ogy Ashley Kleikamp believes this event might attract more stu­dents as well and said, “Alcohol aware­ness is always impor­tant, and maybe this is a dif­fer­ent but ben­e­fi­cial way of approach­ing a seri­ous topic with col­lege stu­dents ver­sus more seri­ous forums often used. It may make the event more enjoy­able to stu­dents while still get­ting a mes­sage across.”

Another way Fox con­nects with her audi­ence is by doing some­thing called “The Big Beer Goggle Challenge.” Fox will ask for two stu­dent vol­un­teers to come on stage and get suited up in beer gog­gles and hel­mets. These two stu­dents will then be put through an obsta­cle course designed to test their depth per­cep­tion and coordination.

“‘The Beer Goggle Challenge’ is ‘on the floor funny,’ while effec­tively demon­strat­ing the dan­gers of drink­ing and dri­ving,” said an FSU press release in the cam­pus calendar.

Witucki believes the chal­lenge will be one of the high­lights of the show for the stu­dents attend­ing the event and stu­dents seem to agree.

“I think the beer gog­gles obsta­cle course sounds fun and I would most likely do it,” said DuMonthier.

“I think it’s a good idea. It gives the per­cep­tion of being drunk and how it affects your phys­i­cal abil­i­ties,” said Kleikamp. “If we see all this while being sober maybe it will affect the deci­sions we make later.”

While some stu­dents believe this pro­gram will be an enter­tain­ing expe­ri­ence, oth­ers are worn out with the idea of alco­hol aware­ness no mat­ter what medium it is deliv­ered through.

“I wouldn’t attend this event because it just doesn’t sound inter­est­ing,” said Mike Gurardot, a junior in the mar­ket­ing pro­gram. “I think the whole thing with alco­hol aware­ness is that we’ve been forced to hear about it since ele­men­tary school and I’m just tired of hear­ing about it. I’m already aware of the dan­gers of it.”

Despite some stu­dents’ views on the topic, most still believe the pro­gram could be beneficial.

Karissa Bouwman, junior in the busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion pro­gram, said, “I prob­a­bly won’t attend the event because I usu­ally don’t take the time to go to the five-star events, but I think it will be good for all the stu­dents that do go.”

The event will be held March 16 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Williams Auditorium and admis­sion is free. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Witucki at witucka@ferris.edu or call ext. 2606. n