Prepping for Al

The preparation for Oz Rokerthon 3 began well before Mr. Roker stepped back onto the SUNY Oswego campus. There was first the planning of what should be submitted through a series of small committee meetings.

Justin Dobrow, senior broadcasting major, was chosen as a student representative to help portray why Al should come back to his Alma Mater. Dobrow helped shoot, edit and submit a video to NBC to show them why this campus should be one of the four chosen.

Soon after the submission of the video, Dobrow received a phone call from NBC letting him know Al would be coming to the campus. Since then Dobrow has been in all the committee meetings, talking with all different organizations, and getting everything planned and organized. The campus had about two weeks until he would be here live.

There were sign-ups and mandatory practices for participants, as well as open skate for those to improve their skating skills before going for the record.

But why the longest conga line on ice? The current record stands at 353 skaters at Ice Rink Canary Wharf in London, UK.

Margaret Spillett, Director of Alumni and Development Communications, is accredited with coming up with the idea of break this particular record. Dobrow adds “it wasn’t just people standing in one spot…it was ‘let’s have fun and break a world record.’”

Dobrow says the preparation has been crazy and long but “it’s what I want to do [as a profession] so it’s a great honor…and it’s really cool.”