Boston University Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore stood at the ready outside the George Sherman Union Saturday, his head protruding through a hole in a cardboard wall. Around him, whipped cream and crust made a messy pie halo.
Elmore was one of the 16 volunteers who offered their faces as potential targets for pie throwers at the Math Education Club’s celebration of Pi Day.
‘A lot of people have been hitting cardboard,’ Elmore said from the wall, with his face dripping with whipped cream.
Every Pi Day takes place March 14 in celebration of the ratio of the circumference of a circle in relation to its diameter, MEC member Elena Quant said. The MEC, co prised of SED students focusing in mathematics, as well as about 200 pi enthusiasts celebrated the holiday a week late because it happened over spring break.
In addition to the pie throwing, the club also hosted raffles and a pie-eating contest. The club charged $1 for each pie thrown and $2 for each pie thrown at Elmore. All money raised was donated to the One Laptop per Child association, MEC President Lily Ma said.
Ma, a SED senior, said she initially heard about OLPC from advertisements around Boston. She wanted the club to get involved and decided to incorporate the charity into Pi Day festivities.
‘These are children that might not see any other technology ever,’ Ma said. The club raised $360 for OLPC. Because laptops cost $200 each, the Office of the Dean of Students donated $40 more, so that the club could pay for two laptops for OLPC.
Elmore said the MEC asked him to participate, and he agreed because of the idea’s ‘cleverness,’ but Elmore said many pie-throwers’ aim was off that day.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Brian Macone said he was just walking by and decided to take part.
‘I can’t pass up on the opportunity to pie Dean Elmore,’ he said. ‘I had never heard of the Math Education Club before, but now I won’t forget.’
Pie target Ashley Reuter said getting pied in the face was not as bad as many would expect.
‘It’s a good excuse to just eat whipped cream all day,’ Reuter, a SED senior, said.
Reuter was pied about 10 times, but got revenge by tossing another 15 at her friends.
‘Two poor fellows got it five times apiece,’ she said.
Reuter said she volunteered to be pied because she wanted to toss one at Elmore.
‘I feel more justified if I pie Dean Elmore in the face if I get pied as well,’ she said.
The MEC raffled off iTunes and Visa gift cards as well as a chance to pie Elmore with a blueberry pie.
MEC faculty advisor and pie target Robert Pollack said he thought the pies were ‘kind of refreshing,’ although frightening.’
‘The fear at the beginning is immense,’ Pollack, a College of Arts and Sciences math professor, said.
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