I would hate to be inside of the car parked in the back lot of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE)’s fraternity house.
The car is completely destroyed with windows broken in, doors dented beyond repair, and absolutely zero chance that the car will ever be seen on the road again.
Why destroy a car with hammers and crowbars on a sunny Wednesday afternoon? Philanthropy of course.
The car smashing event is the latest part of the fraternity’s TKE Week, an effort to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with this event charging $10 for students to get three minutes to destroy the car.
TKE Week includes a variety of different events, such “Dare a TKE,” “Pie a TKE,” and a car wash, all to support St. Jude.
Lorenz Delos Reyes, Philanthropy Chair for TKE, played a huge part in making the week a reality.
“This whole week is TKE Week,” he said. “A week leading up to our Founder’s Day Celebration, which is happening April 26th, we have a full week of events where we do one event each day. Today is our car smash.”
The car smash will likely be the most memorable event to take place throughout the week, but there are several other events that have already taken place to raise money.
“On Monday, we started the “Dare a TKE,” which is a bingo-esque form that we send out every day and people can donate,” Delos Reyes said. “We have to do each dare that corresponds to that respective donation.”
Some of the dares were very simple, such as donating $15 to make a brother take a shot of hot sauce, but others were much more extreme, such as donating $250 to shave the head of a brother in the fraternity.
Smashing a car for a good cause is an opportunity that many students cannot resist, made clear by the current state of the car less than an hour into the event.
Senior Dawsen Loafman, former House Manager, realized how appealing destroying a car is, especially with the stress of finals weighing on the shoulders of students.
“Car smashing is just a fun thing to do,” he said. “The ability to take out some stress and anger management before finals helps students to start the spring with a fresh outlook.”
As far as getting the car to the lot, Loafman cited his hometown connections for helping out with the event.
“I have a few friends back home who are car mechanics,” he said. “They had a bunch of totaled vehicles that they were going to scrap. Courtesy of the Historic Red Rooster, a brewery in Hillsboro, I was able to get the tow truck up here. They donated all of the supplies to get it up here, including the car, which was non-running and ready for the scrap yard.”
TKE is hoping that the car smash will be a hit and can continue to be a strong tradition in the coming years. So far, it looks like that will be the case.
“I could always keep bringing cars around. I have plenty of connections back home,” Loafman said. “I only live 45 minutes away in Nokomis, and the car and truck came from Hillsboro, which is only 15 minutes away from where I’m from. It’s never a big deal to bring something an hour away from me, whether that be a tow truck, a trailer, or a truck, it doesn’t matter to me.”
Tomorrow, TKE will be hosting a car wash and a bake sale followed up by a kickball tournament on the softball field on Friday. Be sure to show up and support a great cause, and you may just get to let some stress out at the same time.
To donate to St. Jude, click this link.
