Students line up to dunk police for charity
VCU students lined up to soak police officers during the the second annual Dunk-A-Cop event in the Commons Plaza on Wednesday.
Liz Butterfield
Assistant News Editor
VCU students lined up to soak police officers during the the second annual Dunk-A-Cop event in the Commons Plaza on Wednesday. VCU Police partnered with the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity to try and drop police officers in a dunk tank in the plaza.
Twenty-eight police officers signed up for the dunk tank during the afternoon event, which raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Special Olympics of Virginia.
VCU police chief John Venuti climbed into the dunk tank just after 1 p.m. to a long line of awaiting students. The chief strapped a waterproof camera over his uniform in the tank.
“You better call your parents to get some more cash,” Venuti egged on students and was eventually dunked after eight tosses. “You know this ends at four?”
Sean Krzeski, an exercise science major who dunked Venuti, said he had been waiting since noon to take a shot on the chief. “(I) bought 30 tickets just so I could dunk him and now I’m just going to have fun with the rest,” Krzeski said.
As a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity, Krzeski said the event was a good way to get VCU police and students to work together for a good cause. “No matter what, you come out here to have a good time, donate to charity, so it’s just all around a great event,” he said.
VCU’s most recent Police Academy graduates also participated in the dunking event.
“No one is dunking me today; I’m not going down,” said Jaime Rodriguez, one of the newly graduated police officers.
Rodriguez circled the plaza, encouraging students to buy tickets to dunk his fellow officers.
“We just graduated from the 38th Basic Academy so we’re not only fellow officers but we’re brothers and sisters … we love being together and we have fun,” he said.
In addition to students who lined up to dunk VCU police officers, many of the new officers bought tickets to dunk their fellow graduates.
Officer Chelsea Cocke said she was dunked six or seven times.
“I got a mouthful of water the first time but it was fun,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing for the police department to get involved with the organizations on campus so we were eager to help out with it.”
