50-Day Club takes off

David Fradkin, Transcript Correspondent

It is finally spring where the weather is getting warmer and the school year is winding down. It is also that time of the year when Backstretch Bar hosts its annual 50-Day Club event.

This year is the 13th annual 50-Day Club where 57 people signed up to participate. The deadline to sign up was March 21.

The even is open to Ohio Wesleyan students, Backstretch employees and Delaware residents.

Every day, participants are required to spend at least 30 minutes at the bar and order two beverages during each visit for 50 consecutive days. But participants are granted three excuses that must be requested and approved before missing a day.

The event began 13 years ago when two employees, who were also OWU students at the time, created a competition between each other to see how many days they could attend in a row.

The competition lasted 23 days until they were both unable to attend.  The bar owner, Joanne Meyers, thought it would be a great way to count down the days until graduation.

She said there are roughly 50 days left of school after spring break, which is when senioritis really kicks in. It has been a tradition ever since.

“A lot of what we stress and what we really promote is kind of developing like a little family unit,” Meye’s said. “It builds a very nice little community of people that you probably wouldn’t have been involved with.”

There are also more interactive activities that are optional such as the elite club.

The elite club is designed for dedicated participants. All participants are given Sundays off as a day of rest. But elite members are required to attend for 50 consecutive days, which includes Sundays anytime between noon and 2 p.m.

There are also team competitions on Wednesday nights for around two hours. For this optional activity, students are randomly divided into groups. Since employees and town’s people make up a smaller portion of the group, they are equally allocated in groups.

The groups compete in these weekly activities which vary each week. At the end, the winning team members get to sign and add some decoration to the winning trophy.

Senior Bridget McQuaide said she is excited to participate in the event for her first time.

“I think that 50-Day Club is a really good way to give seniors an opportunity to do something fun together everyday up until graduation,” McQuaide said. “It’s definitely something that you have to dedicate yourself to, but it’s a really awesome experience where you get time everyday to make more memories with friends and maybe even people you haven’t talked to since freshman year.”