The smell of chicken wings filled Finch Fieldhouse Tuesday night.

A crowd of more than 50 people watched 20 students compete in a wing-eating contest.

The event, organized by five students as a group assignment in Assistant Professor of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services Tim Otteman’s RPL 430: Planning Recreation Programs and Events class, raised funds for “The GO Effect,” a charity that works to improve impoverished communities around the world.

$450 in event donations will be used to help purchase a $600 cow for the African village of Lupanga, Tanzania.

“The cow won’t be killed,” said Rochester Hills sophomore Lisa Zelenak, who helped facilitate the event. “It will provide the village with food and nutrients.”

A contestant attempts to clean their wings at the event “Don’t have a cow... eat like one.” The money raised during Tuesday’s event went toward the GO Effect with the hope of raising $600 dollars to buy a cow for a village in Tanzania, Africa. (Matthew Stephens/Presentation Editor)

Students ate seven wings in each of the four rounds of competition, and the fastest person to eat his or her share won. The final four contestants received prizes, and the overall winner won Red Wing tickets.

“At one point, I just put the whole wing in my mouth,” said Rochester Hills freshman Allison Clifford. “It was a really big rush. You just don’t think about it.”

Friendly handshakes gave way to elbow bumps as the competition progressed.

“The more sauce, the easier it goes down,” said Mount Pleasant sophomore Micah Milan. “But there are always casualties.”

Mason senior David Wilson was one of those casualties.

“I bit my own finger,” he said after a close elimination in the second round of competition.

St. Clair Shores junior Jonathan Flatt won the event.

“I’m really glad to see what they’re doing,” he said.

The group expects to raise the remaining amount through donations received from collection cans placed at businesses in the surrounding area.

“It couldn’t have went any better,” said Scotts junior and event organizer Brittany Cornwell. “I’m really pleased with the way everything turned out.”

E-mail the author: Ben Lazarus