At about midnight tonight, hundreds of UF students in lacy leopard bras and tight, trimmed briefs will cross campus for charity.
Lingerie will be on display at 11:55 p.m. on Turlington Plaza for the 15th Great Underwear Dash, according to an email from an event organizer. Fully clothed participants will meet briefly before they strip down to run a path near University Avenue.
Left-behind clothing will be gathered in trash bags and donated to the Saint Francis House, a Gainesville homeless shelter and soup kitchen. The event has occurred every semester since Spring 2005, excluding Fall 2010, according to the email.
Last semester, the event collected 40 gallons of clothing. The record for the most bags collected was 45 in Spring 2011.
The Great Underwear Dash is listed as a UF tradition in the “F Book,” but Mindy Maconi, a 21-year-old sociology senior, said she and her boyfriend always try to attend. The two have been dating for four years, and the undie run was one of their first dates.
“It was the first time he saw me in my underwear,” she said, “so that was an adrenaline rush.”
Maconi said she leans toward polka dot prints, but for her first run, she donned a pink bra with black accents from Frederick’s of Hollywood and matching bottoms from Victoria’s Secret.
Maconi said she thinks the hype makes the event crazier every semester. It’s not uncommon to see Pokémon ball bras, Deadmau5 masks or the infamous thong from “Borat.”
