By ANIYA WALLACE
Contributing Writer
The Saint Rose acapella group The Other Guys received first place in a sing off that pitted three acapella groups against each other in a fundraiser to fight cancer.
Over a hundred students came out and fought the weather to support the groups battle it out at the Riff Off fundraiser in Saint Joseph’s auditorium this past Tuesday night.
At the event all of the acapella groups were given a specific genre of music and had 45 seconds to sing their song choice each round. There were a variety of genres for the groups to choose from such as, today’s hits, 90’s, 60’s, Disney, Random, and more.
“It’s like a real life Pitch Perfect,” said Danika Guerin, music entertainment chair of SEB.
The Other Guys, The Girls Next Door and The Golden Notes all helped the Riff Off event raise money for the Saint Rose chapter of Colleges Against Cancer. CAC is a national organization where different colleges and branches come together and raise funds for Relay for Life, an event scheduled for the end of April.
The Student Events Board collaborated with CAC to put on the event. Rather than charging an admission fee they sold t-shirts which were black with yellow writing that said, “It’s the Riff Off 2016, Sponsored by CAC and SEB.” The shirts were sold for a minimum of $1 and donations were accepted.
“It was a huge success.” said Vicki Stubbs, CAC president. “We raised a lot of money and sold almost all of our t-shirts.”
Many members of SEB enjoyed planning the event.
“It was fun, it allowed structure and I was happy to get all the groups together to participate,” said Guerin.
People were picked from the audience to be judges based on raffles, and at the end everyone voted for a winner.
After all of the votes were tallied, The Other Guys were announced as the winners. Group member Mark Manning, a music industry major at Saint Rose, talked about how he thinks his previous experience with singing helped him feel comfortable on stage. From singing in church and in theatre he has grown accustomed to being in front of crowds.
Students in the audience enjoyed the music performed at Riff Off.
“It was very interesting songs selections and they were very energetic,” said Denika Dixon, a communications major at Saint Rose.
