LIVINGSTON – Fans attending the Sept. 11 University of West Alabama versus Delta State football game should bring their pillows. No, it’s not going to be a boring game, but during halftime the excitement will really pick up as the school tries to break the Guinness Book’s world record for the biggest pillow fight.

The event, which is co-sponsored by UWA and Alpha Phi Omega, was the brainchild of the fraternity.

“We were looking for a way to put us out there in the public,” George Snow, a faculty adviser for the 79-year-old service fraternity, said.

“We are a national coed service fraternity. We are not a social fraternity in any sense of the word,” he explained. “We formerly were affiliated with the Boy Scouts, and even though we’re not affiliated with them anymore, we still cooperate with them.”

Snow said the fraternity is very active in its community and those communities surrounding the Livingston campus.

“We provide service to the university, the community and anyone that needs help,” Snow said. “We’ve been helping the Homemakers’ Club in Geiger, Ala. That group is renovating the old high school, and we’ve gone and helped them.”

Additionally, the group works in conjunction with the Lion’s Club, and hosts the annual UWA rodeo every year.

“These students take time to do work that helps the community,” he said, commending the fraternity members.

Next Saturday’s event is nothing more than entertainment and awareness, Snow said.

“We’re not trying to make money, we’re just trying to get our name out there and let people know what we’re doing,” he said. “We may not make the record, but we’re going to have fun trying.”

So how does someone decide to break a Guinness record?

“We just looked through the book and on the Web site,” Snow said. “That one looked like fun.”

To break the record, UWA needs at least 646 participants on the field during halftime, and – most important – each participant must sign a roster before leaving the field.

“All of them have to sign a roster before they leave, and we have to turn that into Guinness along with video footage and still photos,” Snow said.

UWA’s student government association will more than likely be selling commemorative T-shirts to mark the event.

Shelly Stapp Findley, from the UWA office of university relations, said she doesn’t think finding 646 people to participate in the pillow fight will be a problem.

“People are already getting excited,” she said.

Snow said he, too, has had positive feedback with one exception.

“I had one negative comment, and that was that it was on 9-11, but the people who attacked us wanted us to change. They wanted us to do things differently. We can’t allow them to disrupt our lives,” he said.

For more information, contact Findley at (205) 652-3892.