See a Fun Video of "What Goes Up - Came Down at Kettering University"

Business Wire, March 31, 2008

FLINT, Mich. -- It took 17 hours to build and less than 17 seconds to topple.

The Kettering University Up Til Dawn student group has demolished a 31-foot Kapla Clock Tower that they built as part of their fundraising campaign for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

See the collapsing tower video at: http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=2744

The tower came down just after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Kettering University in Flint, Mich. Spectators gathered along the railings surrounding the Great Court of the Campus Center to watch as the Up Til Dawn group used a pumpkin slingshot to fire stress balls at the tower to knock it down.

The first shot took a chunk out of the center of the tower but didn't bring it down. The students claim it was their excellent engineering skills that made the tower so resilient. A second missile missed the tower entirely but tore a hole through the Up Til Dawn banner hanging from the third floor balcony. The third shot hit its mark, sending Kapla blocks raining to the floor.

The Up Til Dawn effort raised more than $6,000 for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, said Robert Marias, director of Greek Life and Community Service at Kettering. Next year, the group would like to go for the world record and build a tower to the skylights in the Great Court (50 feet high).

Located in Flint, Mich., Kettering University is the home of the country's most modern professional co-op program. For more on Kettering, visit: www.kettering.edu.