Rokerthon 3: Little bit of everything that made it happen
In early Feburary the “Today Show” and Al Roker asked colleges to send in submission video to get Roker to come to their school and broadcast them setting a world record.
Justin Dobrow, the general manger of WTOP, the on-campus student TV state and Margaret Spillett, the Director of Communications and editor of the Oswego Alumni magazine got together and came up with the idea of longest conga line on ice.
The record was previously held by Ice Rink Canary Wharf in the United Kingdom. Interns for the alumni office, who had participated in the submission video learned through email on March 15 that Oswego had been chosen and that Roker was heading back to his alma mater. Since learning that we would be on the “Today Show,” the college has pushed for participation from students and held several weekly meeting surrounding the event.
These meetings coordinated with different departments like the campus technology department to set up a way to count the number of students for Guinness Book of World Record Officials and asked other State University of New York schools if they could help by providing enough ice skates to be used.
Del Sarte member Allison Anthony had the tough job of making sure that every student knew the routine. With only 300 something students showing up to the four hour practice on Wednesday, officials were worried about reaching numbers and so, opened up participation to anyone who showed up at 4:45 a.m. on Friday. The turnout was unexpected though. So many new students showed up that ambassadors had to help create extra teams to coordinate all of the students.
On Thursday, Roker arrived at the airport and was greeted by students and then traveled to campus where he was welcomed home by more students, some even practicing the conga in the concourse area of the campus center.
Right, left, right, tap left and left, right, left, tap right, repeat to Gloria Estefan’s Conga is just one part of Rokerthon 3 that participants will never forget.
The second thing they will remember is watching confetti fall as it was announced that the former record of 353 people doing the conga on ice was broken. Oswego State students surpassed their goal of 400 plus participants Friday, with final numbers concluding that 593 students had taken to the ice to beat the record.
