Campus radio station uses the undead to raise funds
Greene Street seemed awfully lively Saturday afternoon as WUSC’s Zombie Walk set off toward Five Points.
The walk, which was prefaced by a bake sale at noon and culminated in a concert at El Burrito after the 4:30 p.m. march, was part of the station’s fall fundraiser.
According to station manager Will Flourance, a fourth-year mass communications student, the station hopes to garner at least $6,000 and ideally $9,000. Those funds are an important portion of WUSC’s budget, Flourance said, as they pay for FCC permits, equipment, merchandise, promotion and concerts the station sponsors.
The station provided a distinctly seasonal twist to its fundraising. In the early afternoon, groans of “baaake saaale” were heard on the Russell House patio from students decked out in zombie masks, pale makeup and fake blood.
“It’s one more thing to show how great WUSC is,” said first-year media arts student Nick Johnston, who is a disc jockey at the station. “When we dress up as zombies, it shows that we’re pretty cool.”
Their ranks also increased by a group of about 15 that coordinated a flash mob within the walk and danced along to Michael Jackson’s Halloween-appropriate hit, “Thriller,” in front of Russell House before the march began in earnest.
The 75 or so zombies limped and groaned down Greene Street, reaching out to passersby and drivers, many of whom were seen laughing or occasionally reaching back, even if they were perhaps a touch confused.
“It was pretty much the event of our day,” said Olivia Hubert, a 2011 public relations graduate, excitedly. She stood with third-year advertising student Kelley Bode and fourth-year marine science student Savannah Klein along Greene Street after the three had run downstairs from their apartment.
Among the students who gathered, their motivations — or at least those of their zombie characters — were fairly similar: brains.