Note: For our audio slideshow about X-Week '08, click here.

THE TOTALS ARE (almost) in, and X-Week '08 has already raised more than $1,600 for its charity, Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners.

According to school accountant Lisa Castor, Uni's annual fundraiser has taken in $1,621.22, of which $1,241 came from Big Show.

So why say the totals are "almost" in? Because more funds are likely to come in from the senior auction, Castor said.

This year's auction has raised $340 so far. Student Council executive secretary/treasurer Shara Esbenshade told Castor she expects that amount to increase. Last year's auction raised $474, and X-Week '07 as a whole raised $1,713, Castor said.

A Week of Dance, Music, and Giving Back

For the week of Monday, May 5, the halls of Uni were filled with music and the infectious spirit of people giving back. It was X-Week, Uni's annual showcase of class-, club- and Student Council-sponsored activities created as a way of giving back to the community.

This year, all money raised is going to UC Books to Prisoners, an all-volunteer, nonprofit group that sends free books to prisoners in order to encourage self-improvement.

Throughout the week, candy was everywhere and music was played in the halls during passing periods. Songs, such as "What is Love?" and "Blue," could be requested for $1.

"The music in the hallways is always a hit," said Esbenshade, "and we did actually raise at least $30 or so from the bidding thing, plus it tends to improve people's moods."

As well as the music and candy, different activities were held on each day of the week.

Uni's very own dance crew, Tempe Fugi, kicked off the week on May 5 with a killer performance in Uni Gym, followed by a dance-off. The dance crew's energetic choreography to Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama" more than made up for the fact that only three people competed the dance-off, but both events were highly entertaining and got the week off to a great start.

Lunch on May 6 featured a talent show in Uni Gym, with $1 admission, and included performances by some of Uni's most talented musicians.

Seniors Frankie McFarland, Ammar Rizwan, Isaac Radnitzer, Austin Rundus, Chumar Williams, and junior Malcolm Taylor entertained the fairly large crowd with their out-of-season Christmas-caroling human pyramid, while seniors Grant Loos and Ethan Berl and juniors Teddy Zamora-Mills and Clement Dossin treated the audience to some jazz music.

This was followed by some jazz-infused rock music courtesy of Dossin, fellow juniors Kareem Sayegh and Carter Hutchens, and sophomore Eddie Diazmunoz.

Due to some unfortunate weather, the water-balloon toss scheduled for May 7, in which students could by three balloons for $1, was postponed until the following week.

From Auctioneering to Volunteering

May 8 was the big event: the senior auction. The majority of the student body flooded into the gym to watch as big money was paid for things such as baked goods, physics notes, a subbie English homework pass, a quadruple date with seniors Jake Seeley, Jacob Olshansky, Julian Hartman, and TJ Bozada, a tour of Danville with hometown favorite Rachel Hurley, and a giant group hug from the entire senior class.

The number of people who went and the intensity of some of the bidding wars hint that the auction was, as always, highly successful and likely to surpass last year's total of $472 when the final amount comes in.

Uni's annual student-run sketch comedy performance, Big Show, helped to bring X-Week to a hilarious close on May 9 and 10.

This year's production featured junior Alan Liang as Tyra Banks, junior Adam Tiouririne as Bill Clinton, two Harry Potter skits, a rap music video, two rock band performances, an examination of how Uni students flirt, and some serious warnings about the dangers of getting addicted to math.

Tickets to the show were $5, or $3 plus a paperback dictionary to be donated to Books to Prisoners. The $1,241 raised by this year's Big Show represented a hefty increase over last year's $993, according to Castor.

A new addition to X-Week this year was a volunteer session held at the end of the week.

From 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, Uni students were invited to volunteer at Books to Prisoners. According to Esbenshade, a good 20 or so students showed up at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center to read letters from prisoners, organize and move books, and put up signs around town advertising a book sale.

"The work was extremely rewarding because at the end of just two hours, students had learned how the organization worked, had gotten a chance to read prisoners' letters, getting a sense of the human impact the organization is making, and we had physically moved literally a roomful of boxes filled with books upstairs," said Esbenshade. "It was a lot of fun."

In recent years, student response to X-Week had seemed to dwindle. Esbenshade believes that this had nothing to do with Uni students not wanting to be active in the community.

"There are all sorts of community service and activist groups at Uni that are working hard all year to raise money," she said. "So really Uni is giving back a lot more to the community, and X-Week has suffered because we are all so active throughout the year."

So this year, Student Council tried to keep plans reasonable and relatively easy to handle, and also invited clubs to participate in the planning.

With more than $1,600 raised — and that amount almost sure to increase in the next week or so — there's no doubt that X-Week '08 was successful in prodding students to take a more active role in the community, especially with the May 10 volunteering session.

"I think that this was the most important change in X-Week this year," said Student Council executive president Micah Berman, "regardless of how much money we raised."