Red, white and Army Combat Uniforms will fill campus and Scheumann Stadium on Saturday as Ball State hosts Army during Family Weekend.
This year the Ball State ROTC program has teamed up with the Chase Charlie 5K run, which begins at the Alumni Center, runs through campus and ends at Scheumann Stadium, to present the first Army Games.
Six teams are registered to compete in the weekend's challenge, the farthest coming from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
"We have a traveling trophy we are giving to the winning team," Capt. Stephanie Sandoval, Recruiting and Operations Officer, said. "Next year they will compete and pass it off to the next winner."
Chase Charlie will be the first component of the Army Games and will be followed by a rock climbing wall, military-styled obstacle course and push-up challenge which will be located near Benadum Woods north of Scheumann Stadium.
"This is the first year for the Army Games," Sandoval said. "... it will be a good way to get out there with the student body and answer questions they might have."
Entry fees for the Army Games, along with money from selling 550 cord bracelets made from paracord — a lightweight nylon rope that was originally used in the suspension lines of World War II parachutes that the cadets have made in their labs — will be donated to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a program run by the Indiana National Guard's Survivor Outreach Services.
TAPS provides assistance — including peer-based support, grief counseling and casualty paperwork assistance — to anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one in the military no matter the connection.
"This year was the fourth-annual TAPS [in Indiana]," Carly Glorioso, Survivor Outreach Services coordinator, said. "This year we had 150 people attend, which represented about 30 or 40 families, but in Indiana we have experienced something like 280 losses if you include non-killed in action deaths."
According to the Department of Defense, the United States military has suffered the loss of 6,133 men and women in uniform in Operations Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn and Enduring Freedom.
Nationally, TAPS has provided assistance to more than 30,000 surviving family members with 22,000 of those since Sept. 11, 2001.
"The ROTC program came to me and wanted their money to stay here in Indiana to help Indiana families," Glorioso said.
Teams for the Army Games will include four people and must have at least one male and one female to complete the group.
Each team will receive a score out of 1,000. The 5K run will be measured by the United States Marine Corps physical fitness chart, allowing a team to receive a maximum of 400 points for the run — 100 points maximum for each team participant.
Following the run, each team member will have one minute to complete as many push-ups as possible, where points will be awarded based on the teams' overall numbers.
Next, the teams will compete on the Army National Guard's rock wall where their times will be compiled, and the fastest team will receive 200 points.
The teams will then battle relay style on the inflatable obstacle course and these scores will also be graded on the fastest team to complete the course.
Chase Charlie will begin at 9 a.m. with the Army Games to follow the completion of the run. Students and their families can watch the games as well as interact with the Blackhawk helicopters that will be on display from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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