Attention Army: Put those water boards away, two Chicago high school students have discovered a new form of torture. When local popular coffee shop/art center Boocoo was having financial troubles, two students creatively found a way to motivate (or torture depending who you ask) their fellow students into donating money. Charlotte Runzel and Jesse Chatz, seniors at Evanston Township High School, convinced school administrators to play Justin Bieber on repeat throughout the halls for an entire week until they raised enough money to meet their $1,000 goal. So what tween love anthem did the two chose to be the soundtrack to their school experience for the duration of the fundraiser? “Baby”, of course. You know, the song that truly emphasizes Justin’s talent for writing in its chorus of, “And I was like baby, baby, baby, oh. Like baby, baby, baby, no. Like baby, baby, baby, oh. I thought you’d always be mine.” The students raised all the money they needed by Wednesday. Between that time, Evanston students were subjected to hearing “Baby”, in its entirety…twenty-something times between their classes. Their suffering was not in vein though, as Boocoo is a pretty awesome place. Boocoo Culturial Center and Café strives to promote creativity; they offer music lessons, fitness and dance classes as well as a recording studio and a performance space. “People who work here … are just incredibly moved by the fact that these kids came to us and wanted to help out,” Alicia Hempfling, Boocoo’s administrator, told the Sun-Times.
The school officials stuck their agreement of keeping Bieber’s baby-mania going, despite a wave of complaints from students. “There were certainly people who disagreed that it was a fun thing,” said Ali Hart, the school’s assistant director of student support and racial equity. “Some people were truly annoyed, but that’s kind of the incentive. If it wasn’t going to be slightly annoying, then you wouldn’t be motivated to stop the music.” While “Baby” seems like the only logical choice for this kind of thing, for those keeping track at home, the word “baby” is said 56 times in the song, so finding the perfect song took some brainstorming.
“As student council, we decided that ['Baby'] would be the most annoying without being over the top,” Chatz told the Chicago Tribune. “I could pick out more annoying songs, but I think that’s right at the limit of annoying and not too annoying.” One student claimed that he constantly found himself singing the song during class. It’s a good thing that Runzel and Chatz had been spending so much time at Boocoo so that their creative minds had been nourished enough to come up with this plan, because now the entire high school will benefit from the results. According to Hempfling, the money raised by the students will be put towards something Evanston High School specific. “We didn’t want to just take advantage of a fund-raiser, just putting it into Boocoo to pay bills- it had to have meaning,” she said, explaining that they will use the funds to provide a space for students to do their senior presentations- free of charge. Among proving that creativity is important and young people still appreciate it, I think this taught us another very valuable lesson: forcing people to listen to Bieber will get them to do what you want.
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