The first ever OSU Puppy Bowl will take place on the South Oval at Noon this Sunday. Credit: Courtesy of Tamara Sabbagh
With the end of the semester right around the corner and finals looming, OSU Oval Dogs in collaboration with Block O, is hosting its inaugural OSU Puppy Bowl.
The Puppy Bowl is an event for both students with dogs and student who want to be around them. They will host events for the dogs to participate in, such as best costume, most obedient, fastest fetch and speed. One dog will even be crowned MVP (Most Valuable Pupper) by the end of the event.
The two student organizations decided to team up in an effort to bring together students, puppies and food for a good cause in preparation for the Spring Game next weekend.
OSU Oval Dogs is a fairly new student organization that started with a group of dog owners who became friends on The Oval and created a GroupMe. The members of the group could find dog sitters, meet up for play dates or even post about dogs who need rescued in the group message.
“It went from a GroupMe of just everybody hanging out and meeting up to us being like ‘This could be something,’” Tyler Pagenstecher, OSU Oval Dogs social media manager, said. “We ended up getting together, figured everything out, made it official and have been doing it for this year since.”
Pagenstecher said the group had been tossing around ideas for an event for some time, but nothing stuck until the idea of a Puppy Bowl was brought up. He said it also helped when they found out Block O was interested in being a part of the event.
Tanvi Kumar, a fourth-year in biology, has been involved with Block O for two years and also was one of the founding members of OSU Oval Dogs. She took on the job of connecting the groups in the beginning stages of planning the Puppy Bowl.
Kumar said a big part of Block O’s mission that doesn’t center around sports is being the student voice. With OSU Oval Dogs being such a small organization, she said it needed that kind of pull on campus for this event to be successful. So far, the partnership has gone really well.
“I think that everyone blends well together because they have innately the same personality and nature,” Kumar said. “Everyone’s really kind-hearted, everyone wants the best for their student org and also everyone wants to give back to the community.”
The Puppy Bowl will be sponsored by Coke, Monster Energy and Donato’s and all of the proceeds will be split between two organizations: Pets for Vets and Columbus Humane Society.
“I think the reason why [the Puppy Bowl] is special is for most events that I’ve seen on campus, you have to dip into your funds a little bit to get people to come and show interest in it,” Kumar said. “With us it’s one: people are going to come because there are dogs involved and two: we’ve put all of our effort into using as little funds as possible and using donations because everyone understands the magnitude we’re working with.”
Kumar said there aren’t many non-kill shelters in the area and half of the profits are going to a non-kill shelter. She said it was really important to get donations rather than having to use money from the event to fund it.
Not only is the event supporting two great causes, Pagenstecher said it’s a great precursor to the football scrimmage next weekend.
“[The Puppy Bowl] is a way to get ready for the spring game,” Pagenstecher said. “It’s dogs, everybody loves dogs.”
The Puppy Bowl will take place on the South Oval from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday. For nonparticipants, a $3 donation is recommended and registration for participants will be $5 with a $1 entry fee per event.
