Events precede football game

The football game students look forward to all year is upon us.It’s Michigan Week, a time for activities celebrating the rivalry between the Buckeyes and Wolverines.Community service projects began Friday. Bins were distributed to residence halls and campus buildings for the Nike Re-Use-a-Shoe program, a collection competition with Michigan for used athletic shoes.The shoes collected will be ground into pieces for inner-city neighborhoods.”Nike will recycle the shoes and make them into surfaces for playgrounds and other things like tennis courts,” said Cannon Sanders, student chair of Michigan Week. Distribution of grocery bags to community members and bins in residence halls, campus buildings and Big Bear stores were also distributed Friday for Operation Fill-Up, a food drive to collect items for area female-headed households.The other competition is the 17th Annual Ohio State-Michigan Blood Battle, which officially began last Monday. Michigan is leading so far with 401 units of blood to OSU’s 310.”Michigan Week is a good way to show OSU spirit and a time to give back to the community with the events like Operation Fill-Up and the Nike program,” Sanders said.Events during the rest of the week include:

• A volleyball challenge between students, faculty and administrators will take place at Larkins Hall 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
• Mentalist Robert Channing will perform “Hypnotize the Wolverines” 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Ohio Union Conference Theater.
• BW3 will give out 20,000 chicken wings free at Larkins Hall on Thursday.
• On game day, Bob Evans will provide a free pancake and sausage breakfast from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Larkins Hall followed by a “spirit tunnel” on East 15th Avenue to cheer on buses carrying the football team.

The week’s activities are being sponsored by the Office of Student Activities.