Ramen rallies relief

Marshall University students used their creativity to turn ramen noodles into cash. The money will go to a nonprofit organization to benefit Haiti.

Students competed in the National Collegiate Ramen Noodle Cook-Off on Saturday. Beta Alpha Psi and the International Students' Organization sponsored the event. All of the proceeds from the event went to the Palms for Life Fund, a nonprofit that establishes alliances with organizations that work directly with poor communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to achieve social, economic and environmentally sustainable development, according to the Palms for Life Web site.

Tyler Rowland, senior accounting and finance major from Ashland, Ky., and president of Beta Alpha Psi helped organize the event.

"This is a really fun event, but it is going to be great to help the people in Haiti," Rowland said. "This is the first cook-off of its kind at Marshall University, and we have high expectations for it both presently and in the future."

Students and community members used ramen noodles, $5 in ingredients of their choices and the supplied ingredients such as brown sugar, garlic powder, honey, ketchup, hot sauce and cinnamon, Rowland said.

The participants had 30 minutes to prepare a unique ramen noodle dish that  was then judged for flavor, ingredients and plating.

Denise Hogsett, director of career services and a judge for the competition, was excited to be a judge and anxious to try some of the creations.

"There are some creative noodle dishes out there," Hogsett said.

Judges were rotated throughout the day to keep anyone from having to eat too many ramen noodles, said Randy Michel, senior finance major from Ashland, Ky.

The organizations provided free samples of ramen noodles, sold T-shirts and hired a disk jockey to keep the event interesting and fun, Michel said.

"We really want to make it a yearly event on campus," Rowland said. "We are going to present the idea when we go to our regional meeting of Beta Alpha Psi. We then hope this event can have a university level, regional level and national level, with the national level being held here at Marshall."

The results of the ramen noodle competition will be released at a later date.

Ellen Kist can be contacted at kist@marshall.edu.