A crowd of screaming UB students ran like the wind as they began their race to the finish in the Verizon Wireless Urban Challenge scavenger hunt, held Thursday on the field between Clemens Hall and The Commons.
The Student Association's Community Action Core and Boxing Club were beneficiaries of the fundraiser, which, according to the Urban Challenge's National Race Director Geoff Yaw, is the first free activity Verizon has sponsored on a college campus.
The two campus groups received funds from the company for helping out with the event.
"This is a mass participation event that we've been having around the country for the past three years," said Yaw. "We came here for free because we got such a warm welcoming from the Student Association."
Community Action Core member Emily Horak, a sophomore health and human services major, said she was pleasantly surprised that 32 teams entered the contest.
"This is a neat way to fundraise," said Horak. "It's cool to see people running across campus when it's usually so dead. It's nice to see people so excited."
With only 90 minutes to complete the campus-wide race, each of the 32 two-person teams were given a Verizon camera phone and instructed to bring back pictures of all 12 checkpoints before returning to the finish.
Trivia clues, such as "Which college has won the most bowl games?" were text-messaged to the teams as they searched for the building or landmark that answered the clue.
While the participants were busy racing around campus, students taking an afternoon stroll or heading into Starbucks stopped to check out the display of Verizon's newest cellular phones and spin a wheel for a chance to win a deck of cards and other prizes.
Students could also sign up for a chance to win the latest phone accessories, which would be mailed to the winners.
As the clock neared 4:30, the teams bolted like lightning to the finish line, sweat trickling down their foreheads and soaking their shirts.
The first team to arrive, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity members Rodolfo Garcia and Daniel Stolzberg threw their hands in the air and let out an exhausted but victorious "Wahoo!"
"We were running to the finish line with our last ounce of strength, and all I could think of was I didn't know if there was already a winner," said Garcia.
The teams that completed the race in the 90-minute interval checked in their phones at the starting point and eagerly awaited the results.
Before announcing the winner of the grand prize, Yaw gave free Verizon wireless hats and knapsacks to eight of the runner-up teams.
Yaw announced the winners with a final drum roll on his microphone. Over the losing teams' loud sighs of disappointment, the victorious cheers of Garcia and Stolzberg echoed through the air as they rushed to the front of the crowd to receive the grand prize of $500.
"We won because we left it all on the journey," said Garcia, referring to his team's battle to the finish line. "We expended all of our energy and got to the finish line completely beat."
Some unsuccessful teams said they would have used the money to pay bills and go shopping. One team member said he had even lost his lunch from running so much.
The second place team, sophomore math major Sarah Pietsch and sophomore marketing major Leah Paszkiewicz, said they were heartbroken by the loss.
"We thought we had this when we were running all over," said Pietsch. "We were going to go shopping and buy new shoes since we got ours all muddy from the field."
Holding the check steady in his hand, Stolzberg smiled and said he couldn't wait to spend the money on drinks and prime rib.
"When my leg started hurting during the race, I kept going," said Stolzberg. "'Cause 500 bucks can buy me a new leg!"
