Speed dating, online dating, The Bachelor — it seems there are countless ways to make money off of the lonely-hearts club.
And now BU is cashing in on the trend, with dating auctions becoming a popular and effective way of fundraising for charities and residence halls’ future programs.
”You’re giving money to charity and getting a date with someone in return, it’s a win-win deal,” said Eric Mazurkewitz, a contestant in Cascade Hall’s recent auction, which attracted an audience of 130 people.
Newing college council raised $300 for the Red Cross in their auction last week and Delti Phi Epsilon is hoping their 13th annual Dream Date auction, to be held next spring, will surpass last year’s donation of $1000 to their fundraising effort to fight cystic fibrosis.
“When people know that their money is going to a great cause and they’re getting a date in return, they’re willing to bid a lot of money,” said Randi Kobulnick of Delta Phi Epsilon. “Students also like outbidding one another, so sometimes they’ll get carried away and before they know it, they’ve shelled out a lot of cash.”
But is the “it’s all for a good cause” excuse just a fa√É.√ßade for contestants who see the popularity contest aspect of the auctions?
“I remember one guy stripped down to his boxers on stage to increase his bidding,” Kobulnick, a junior English major, said of last year’s Dream Date auction.
“There are those people like myself and others that auctioned themselves off that don’t mind getting in front of a crowd to put on a show,” Mazurkewitz, a junior biology major, said. “I won’t lie, it was a rush up there struttin’ my stuff.”
The organizers denied planting friends of contestants in the audience to save less popular participants the embarrassment of being left on the shelf, but many contestants were not willing to place a price on their pride without a safety net.
“A lot of times, people will have their friends, boyfriends or girlfriends bid on them or their fraternity or sorority,” Kobulnick said.
However, those with less helpful friends were forced to go to it alone.
“I’m not sure if they would be willing to pay a couple of bucks to save me the embarrassment,” Mazurkewitz said.
Winning bidders at Delta Phi Epsilon and Newing’s annual events are given local restaurant and movie theatre vouchers for their date, but the rules of engagement at Cascade Hall’s auction are more lax, with the winner deciding whether the date is of the romantic variety.
“One guy was bought by a girl not to go on a date with her but instead to clean her suite – which kind of sucked for him,” said Aaron Savedoff, an organizer of Cascade Hall’s auction.
It seems donating to charity and the excitement of bidding wars have come to overshadow the romantic underpinning of dating auctions.
“It was more of a friend-buys-friend type of auction rather than people actually looking for real dates,” Newing’s auction organizer Kerry Nienstedt said.
None of BU’s auction organizers could name a couple whose seeds of romance had been planted on a charity auction date, but Baker is hoping her date next week will have a happier ending.
“My girlfriends bought me, but they gave me over to a friend of mine…a crush of mine.”