A Higher Glyphic

Derrieres were in the air on Sunday, April 30, as dozens of people played Twister in a world-breaking game to raise money for Alzheimer's research.

The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity hosted the event to raise money for its philanthropy, Alzheimer's Disease, the proceeds going to the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute for Alzheimer's research. More than 100 people showed up to help the cause and have a little fun in the meantime.

The record breaking Twister game, which was made from 200 mats, was a total of The previous world record-setting board measured 88.9 feet by 27.6 feet. The new board was roughly 1900 square feet larger than the previous record-holding board, measuring 100 feet by 47 feet.

Billy Baber, a freshman studying phyical therapy, came up with the idea while surfing on the Internet one night instead of doing homework. He said he then contacted the company and was able to order the 200 Twister mats, which cost $750.

In the game of Twister, a childhood favorite, players are directed by a spinning wheel on where to put their body parts. "Right hand red ... left foot blue," and more phrases of the sort, were called out over a loud speaker for nearly an hour, as players followed the rules. To be eliminated, a player has to either run out of space, so they no longer have a colored circle on which to put their hands or feet, or remove a hand or foot from a space, sometimes resulting in falling over from holding a difficult position for too long.

As the game progessed during the hot Spring afternoon, the number of mats along with the number of players grew smaller, until finally there was only one mat and five people left.

There were two tie winners from Sunday's game, both who fell over at the same time. Jason Theis, an undecided freshman from Belleville, was one of the winners. Theis said he came out because of a friend, but he also wanted to be a part of the record-breaking game.

"That's another reason why I wanted to come, to be in a book, say I've been here," Theis said. "It was rough, but it's all good."

The other winner was Matt Krojh, a senior from Carol Stream studying information technology.

All of the last five players received some sort of prize, from gift certificates to local businesses such as Hunan's to iPod speakers.

Carlos Cravens, a senior studying speech communication and also the M.C. of the event, said the Twister game is going to become an annual event.

""If we need to break the record, we'll just keep breaking the record and keep raising money," Cravens said. "I got to watch a lot of my brothers and friends get to know a lot of other people a lot differently than you usually would."

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