Pennies from Heaven

Mike Seidl was ahead by a mile—until the final moments of the Human Sundae competition, when the women’s basketball team weighed in.

So as not to telegraph their punch, the Lady Greyhounds had been quietly making the rounds of local banks, exchanging dollar bills for rolls of pennies.

Just before noon November 26, when there was no chance to counter their offensive, they dropped several tons of pennies into the jar for their coach, Mary Beth Spirk. This brought her total to 3,588 pennies ($35.88).

So Mary Beth became the Human Sundae at halftime during last week’s men’s basketball game with Albright.

“I wanted team unity, and this is what I got!” she lamented.
Runners-up were “Doc” Windolph, dean of student life, with 3,147 pennies, and Robert Brill, professor of psychology, with 961. They also were ice creamed.

Trailing far behind were Michelle Schmidt, assistant professor of psychology, -87 points; Jack Dilendik, professor of education, -121 points; athletic trainer Bob Ward, -176 points; soccer coach Eric Lambinus, -298 points; Chris Jones, assistant professor of biology, -558 points. Bringing up the rear was onetime leader Mike Seidl, executive assistant to the president, -2,241 points. (Under the rules of this convoluted competition, negative numbers actually mean positive cash.)

According to Jen Hinkel ’04, Bangor, of the sponsoring Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the total raised for Habitat for Humanity was $273 in the penny jars and $132 at the basketball game, where chances to cream the winners were raffled off, for a total of $405.

So how could Mike have been way out in front last week and in last place by D-Day? It appears he bought his way out with a last-minute contribution to offset the 3,834 pennies in his penny jar. (“Rumors that I put in $60 could be true,” he admitted.) So much for Neil Reenock and Jon Conrad salting the jar.

By the way, those photos of Bob Windolph plastered all over campus were the efforts of his claque to cinch the election.