My name is Katelynn Bender; I am the President of Dogtown After Hours. We hope to bring more awareness to the purpose behind DTAH and encourage you all to attend our events this upcoming spring.
To give some background: DTAH is a large-scale, collaborative, alcohol-alternative event at Drake University that entertains over 850 attendees every year.
Our past events have seen a multitude of great activities, such as a world-record-breaking pie fight, a world-record-breaking Nerf gun fight, a giant glow-in-the-dark dodgeball game and a fireworks show.
Many think that Dogtown After Hours is a party (and it is!), but it also has a meaningful purpose behind why it was founded and continues today!
Dogtown After Hours began in 2011 after two Drake students passed away from alcohol poisoning. In 2009, a 19-year-old student was forced to drink a large amount of Everclear and had to be hospitalized. He had a blood-alcohol content of 0.50. In reference, the legal alcohol limit is 0.08. Thankfully, he survived.
In 2011, a Drake student tried to drink 21 shots on her 21st birthday. She passed away the next day due to alcohol-related complications of an undiagnosed heart condition. These occurrences help emphasize how frequently this occurs and how it can happen here at Drake. That being said, we want to raise awareness about the dangers of alcohol poisoning while simultaneously giving students a safe, alcohol-alternative option for their Friday night festivities.
For Dogtown After Hours, we have a small but mighty planning committee that meets each week to decide on the different aspects. These include our service project, inflatables, activities, possible performance groups, decorations, food, prizes, t-shirts and Griff! We partner with countless student organizations here on campus and businesses around the Drake community!
We hope to see you all at Dogtown Before Hours (hype event!!) and at Dogtown After Hours in the spring. If you are interested in being a part of DTAH’s team or mission, please reach out to us; we would love to work with you!
Kind Regards,
Katelynn Bender & the Dogtown After Hours’ Planning Committee
(Contact: [email protected])
