AKL Phillip Azbick swings a sledge hammer through the windshield at the fraternity’s Car Bash event. Photo by Donnie Bennett
Glass flies as the sledgehammer hits the rear window. Despite the brute action, the shattered glass and metallic destruction are all in the name of charity.
Dylan Drake and Taylor Whitten of the Alpha Kappa Lambdas put together a charity event where people gave money to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
To participate in this event, a student donated money to help smash in a car. The car was given to AKL by South Calera Towing. It was $1 for one swing with a baseball bat, $3 for one swing with the sledgehammer and $5 for three swings with the sledgehammer. By event’s end, the organization raised $150 and had 25 total participants
The event started with two of the girlfriends of the AKLs wrecking the car first. Jana Armstrong, a junior, took the first swing and took the tail light out. The event really started when Evan Byrd, a sophomore, took out the rear window. It moved on to all of the participants taking out the windows.
As the event went on, it became clear that more girls were participating than boys. They worked hard to destroy the entire car. Kailin Parker, a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority said “It’s good to get out the aggression.”
When male students did come to start destroying the car, one that stood out was Colby Russell. He was the big spender, giving $20 for 12 hits with a sledgehammer. Russel managed to knocked the bumper off and hit the spoiler in half.
The men kept trying to hit the doors off of the car but never succeeded. They eventually gave up on getting to doors off and instead focused on smashing the doors in. They continued this routine with the hood of the car.
The event did get a bit dangerous at one point. Austin Dodich, a senior finance major, was hitting one of the car doors over and over. Eventually Dodich’s aggressive assault launched the sledgehammer into the crowd and almost hit someone.
Through the whole destructive process, the students seemed to be having fun as they taunted each other and blasted music from a truck. By the end, the car was completely destroyed and had holes through the entire body. Drake said, even though it was the first time they had done this, they want this to become an annual event.
