From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Mon Sep 30 2002 - 10:16:34 EDT
September 30, 2002 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Students from a Calvin College residence hall started classes on September 9.
Just a week later they worked a camping trip into their daily schedule of class,
homework, chapel, meals and more. But this was no ordinary camping trip.
The site is less than a mile from campus, at the corner of the East Beltline
and 28th Street, one of the busiest intersections in Grand Rapids. It's home to
a new Krispy Kreme donut shop, which opened September 24. And the Calvin
students camped in front of the store for a week with the goal being to win a
year's supply of free donuts.
It all started during orientation week at Calvin when representatives from
Krispy Kreme gave out free donuts at a movie night on campus. They also
announced that the first 12 people into the store on opening day would receive
free donuts for a year (a dozen a week for 52 weeks).
Three resident assistants in Boer Hall started scheming about how to win the
prize. When all was said and done RAs Jeff Konczal of Powell, Ohio, Matt DeKam
of Leota, Minn., and Dave Boven of Elmhurst, Ill., had a plan that eventually
included tents, a motor home and a schedule that saw at least two Calvin
students on the Krispy Kreme premises at all times.
And when the doors to the store opened at 5:30 a.m. on September 24, Calvin's
Krispy Kreme gang cornered eight of the first dozen spots, earning the residence
hall eight dozen Krispy Kreme donuts a week for an entire year.
That concluded a rather amazing week for the hall. In fact, by the time the
store opened for real the students from Boer had gotten to know the Krispy Kreme
folks pretty well. And they brought a fair bit of the Calvin campus to their
little spot at the Beltline and 28th Street. They even held a church service in
the Krispy Kreme parking lot on September 22, complete with a sermon from Matt
Lind, a youth pastor at Sunshine CRC, and rousing praise songs with lyrics
projected onto the big Krispy Kreme tent. The next day included a Boer cook-out
followed by a concert by a local Christian rock band and then the showing of a
movie (projected onto the wall of the new store).
Finally, on September 24, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by the
mayors of both Grand Rapids and Kentwood, the doors opened at exactly 5:30 am
and the crowd rushed in to get free donuts and T-shirts. And then the students
returned to Calvin with satisfied stomachs, fond memories and the pleasant
prospect of many more donuts to come.
The effort was great for dorm unity, says Konzcal. "Without everyone's
participation, it wouldn't work. We'll never forget this."
~with reporting by media relations student writer Abe Huyser-Honig
-end-
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