Molly Tumanic

Assistant professor of chemistry Kurt Wiegel slipped out of his heavy boots and into a pair of aqua shoes. Wearing swim trunks and a T-shirt, he climbed into the metal dunk tank behind Putnam Hall.

“Remind me this is for a cause,” he said, wincing as his feet hit the cold water.

Wiegel’s cause was the Putnam LoveStock. The Putnam Hall Council organized the event, which took place from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, to raise money for cystic fibrosis research.

Students also were able to dunk Putnam’s RAs and hall director. The festival offered other activities as well, including tournaments such as the arcade game Dance Revolution, kickball, poker and volleyball. Attendees also could enjoy a spread of picnic food, get a henna tattoo and listen to musical performers.

This year’s LoveStock was an outgrowth of the Putnam Love Run, said junior Guthrie Horgan, president of Putnam Hall Council. Attendance had dropped at the Love Run, so the Hall Council decided to try a new event. Putnam Hall Council has been organizing a charitable event for about 30 years, Horgan said.

This year, the council raised money for the Madison chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in honor of hall director January Boten’s former roommate from the University of Minnesota, Shelly Airy, who died of CF in 2001.

Boten said she hasn’t tallied up all the earnings, but from what she has tallied, she can speculate the event raised more than $450.

CF is a genetic disease that causes the body to produce a thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs, according to CFF’s Web site. The mucus can lead to life-threatening lung infections, as well as obstruct the pancreas so the body cannot absorb nutrients from food.

One in every 3,200 Caucasians is born with CF, and about 30,000 people in the United States have the disease. More than 10 million Americans are carriers of one CF gene; it takes two copies of the gene to produce the disease. Each year, about 1,000 new cases are diagnosed.

The CFF funds research to find a way to cure or control the disease and to improve the quality of life for people who have CF.

Boten said Airy was open about her illness the moment she moved in.

“She was never depressing about it, but she wanted you to understand,” Boten said. Airy showed her the inflatable vest she had to put on several times a day to shake the mucus from her lungs.

When Airy got sicker, she would wheel her IV to class. Airy was planning to get married in August 2001, but died in April that same year.

“She was so strong and amazing,” Boten said.

She added she was very impressed with the students of Hall Council who organized the event.

“It just shows how awesome the students who happen to live in this building are, that they would create this event,” Boten said. “I feel lucky that the students of Hall Council care enough about me to do something that’s important to me.”