Surviving the blob experience -- and benefitting HU

Ashley Helmstetter is just seconds from splashdown in the now infamous "blobbing."

What started out as a silly joke at the HYPE Career Ready First-Year Common Experience spread like wildfire around the camp and on social media. It turned profitable, if not a little scary, for Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Major Gifts Ashley Helmstetter.

The blob at Hocking Hills’ Camp Otterbein has become a favorite experience at the FYCE for students, and apparently for faculty and staff as well. It goes something like this: One person crawls to the end of a large, floating inflatable ”blob” while another climbs a tower, preparing to jump on the blob and launch the first person into the air for a major splash into the lake.

On Sunday, a conversation overheard by many went something like this:

Dr. Robin Heaton (communication professor): “Wouldn’t it be funny if Bob (Youngblood) blobbed Ashley (Helmstetter)?

Jacqueline Sironen (director of Student Engagement and HYPE): “I’d pay good money to see that. If we raise money, will you do it?”

Ashley: “If the money goes to France Hall (restoration/renovation), I’ll do it.”

She is a woman of her word. She agreed to be “blobbed” by Alumni Engagement colleague Bob Youngblood if the group raised $300 for the France Hall project.

Jacqueline posted the challenge to her Student Engagement Twitter account and on her personal Facebook page. In a couple of hours – and much to Ashley’s surprise – the goal had not only been met but exceeded. Faculty, staff (current and former), students and alumni got in on the fun. The final total pledged: $600.

“It became a running joke that spread through the camp pretty quickly,” Jacqueline said. Ashley added, “I really didn’t think Bob and I would be that intriguing!”

And then it happened, much to the delight of the crowd of students gathered to watch and encourage her. The whole “blobbing” took about 8 minutes from beginning to splashdown. Check it out here.

“It was scary,” Ashley said. “I would not have done that if it wouldn’t have benefitted the university.”

Jacqueline recognized an intangible benefit to the whole experience. “I thought it was such a spontaneous, cool way for first-year students to begin to understand what Alumni Engagement and Alumni Engagement/Major gifts does for them. There were several students who put in a dollar just to be part of it.”

Despite a nasty bruise on her thigh where she landed, Ashley says the experience was “absolutely worth it.”

“The students who encouraged me to do it were so kind, and one alum posted on Facebook that the ‘Berg Alumni Office is second to none.’ That really made me smile.”

Consider giving a gift for the France Hall restoration project.