More than 400 students stripped to their bras, man-thongs and underwear for the 11th Great Underwear Dash Friday night.
The dash is a charity run held every semester in which participants donate clothes to the Salvation Army.
At Friday’s event, participants collected enough clothing to fill 26 30-gallon garbage bags.
Jorge Gomez, a UF electrical engineering graduate student, organized the nearly naked event.
“I really don’t do anything. I set the date, and I take the clothes to Salvation Army,” said Gomez, who has run in the dash since his freshman year. “But the run is what the runners make of it, and it’s really their spirit that keeps this going.”
Gomez said the event supports a good cause and makes runners feel connected to their fellow students, Gomez said.
“I feel like [the dash] is usually passed on by people who have done it before. They tell their freshmen friends,” Gomez said. “You come here and you get a real atmosphere and an understanding of what it means to be a Gator.”
Julia Yip, a UF linguistics and communicative disorders senior, ran in the dash for the first time.
“It’s an interesting charity because it’s exciting to do something different,” Yip said.
Matthias Gritschneder, a German post-doctoral student at Peking University in Beijing, was in Gainesville for an astrophysics conference. He spotted the half-clothed runners while leaving The Swamp Restaurant.
“I didn’t expect it at all, but I think it’s a good idea. It’s fun for the people, and it has a benefit as well,” Gritschneder said.
Gritschneder said he might have participated if he was not traveling with a limited amount of clothing.
“It is a much funnier way to donate,” Gritschneder said.
Steven McLeod, a chemical engineering junior, was willing to strip for the run, but said he wouldn’t run around in his underwear during broad daylight.
“I’m not that spontaneous,” McLeod said. “I wouldn’t throw off my clothes and run around campus, but if you give me a reason to, then sure.”
