While walking through campus on Oct. 14, 15 and 16 it would not be unusual to see a decorated golf cart driving around the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Campus Programming and Relations (CPR) sponsored this golf cart for their annual event, Cash Cart.

Modeled after the show “Cash Cab” on the Discovery Channel, the idea behind this event is for students to get a ride on the cart while being asked trivia questions. If the rider gets the questions right, he or she is able to win ‘Smarties’ candy and prizes. However, if the rider gets two questions wrong, he or she is given a ‘Dum Dum’ sucker and dropped off at the location they are currently at.

The two event producers were Alexa Sieling and Bridget Hughes. In an effort to mix it up this year, Sieling and Hughes decided to have different questions for every day of the event.

This year, each question was based on October holidays. Oct. 14 was National Desert Day, so each of the questions was centered on deserts. On the last day of Cash Cart, in honor of the blood drive happening on campus, students were asked questions about blood such as, “What is the shelf life of red blood cells?” In which the correct answer was 42 days.

“You get a lot of awesome prizes and a free ride to your class or residence hall,” Sieling said.

According to David Nevins, Director of Campus Activities, the idea for the Cash Cart was brought to his attention at the Wisconsin Network of Activities Professionals Conference. This conference allows college programming board advisors to get together and share the activities that they are currently running on their campus. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay originally began the Cash Cart.

“UW-Green Bay did it, and we improved on it with our six passenger cart, which made it a little bit better,” Nevins said. “Whenever there is a good idea, if it is good somewhere else we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we can use it, and we did.”

In an effort to incorporate more people on campus, CPR invited the Resident Directors on campus to participate in this event as well. This allowed students to see their RDs being involved with life outside of the residence halls, which often helps to increase the participation in this event.

“I like Cash Cart because it gave me the opportunity to drive around campus and say ‘hi’ to people and make people smile and act goofy,” Alisha Slowey, Bridgeway Commons Resident Director said.