For the third straight year, the student group United for Uganda held an all-night lock-in to raise money for children in the civil war-torn country. This year's lock-in took place from 9 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday. UFU raised a best-ever $1,500 after expenses. About half of the junior and senior classes attended, some 60 students in all. Many sophomores attended the Saturday night kick-off dance as well. Senior Elaine Gu was there, and she provides this first-person account of the evening (and early morning). Another first-person story will follow soon, by junior Erika Belmont.

URBANA — On Saturday, I went to my first-ever United for Uganda lock-in. The previous two years, I’ve either been too busy or sick when the lock-in took place, so I was excited to finally get the chance to spend an entire night at school with my friends.

When I showed up, a dance was going on in the first-floor hallway. The lights were turned off and music blasted in the building. I was exhausted after a long week and the loud music gave me a headache, so I helped the UFU members prepare mashed potatoes in the kitchen.

Following the dance and a brief snack and some soothing music, the students headed to Kenney Gym for an intense game of dodgeball. Lacking an aggressive nature and arm strength, I chose to sit on the bleachers with a few friends and play Monopoly.

But soon we abandoned Monopoly and became absorbed in the game that was going on. The seniors vs. juniors contest featured guys (and a few girls) pelting each other with yellow balls of various sizes. After many random "JAILBREAK" calls by Mr. Sutton and much cheating and ambushing on both sides, the seniors unfortunately lost.

Then there was a blondes vs. brunettes game, which ultimately sort of ended in a tie. Just for fun, Mr. Sutton called a boys vs. girls game to conclude the night of dodgeball. All the girls watching on the bleachers banded together in hopes of not getting destroyed by the boys team. Either we were all amazing at dodgeball, or the boys went easy on us, because we didn't lose too badly.

Once everyone was tired from dodgeball, we returned to Uni and watched an excellent presentation by senior Annie Machesky about the situation in Uganda. Then we were free to help ourselves to the various drinks and yummy dishes in the kitchen, such as lasagna, pasta with marinara, chicken wings, vegetables, and an assortment of desserts.

We were pretty much allowed to do whatever we wanted from 2 to 6 a.m. Some chose to play video games, some engaged in intense games of pingpong, and others went to sleep in rooms designated for sleeping. A few strange friends of mine locked themselves in a dark room and watched the visualizer and others simply chose to talk and enjoy each other's company.

I spent the first part of my evening playing a game of Team Monopoly. There was a lot of cheating involved. After a few rounds, everyone started grabbing the money from the bank and the game sort of ended after that, but it was all good fun. I then watched a pingpong tournament and played an impromptu game myself on the floor of the first-floor hallway.

As it approached 5 a.m. and everyone began feeling tired, we started a game of Spoons to rejuvenate ourselves. Lacking spoons, we used plastic forks. The game soon turned extremely intense and even dangerous as we all battled for the plastic knives. I think I discovered my hidden talent of playing Spoons because I was nearly undefeated for an entire hour.

For breakfast I stuffed myself with fluffy pancakes cooked by Mr. Stone; I also had some jumbo-sized macaroons. It was 6 a.m. by then, and everyone flocked to the lounge and lethargically slumped on the couches. I was tired, but I didn't feel like going to sleep. So I took my iPod and blasted Miley Cyrus' "See You Again" to wake people up.

Surprisingly, it worked. Soon people were singing to the chorus. We continued our sing-a-long with '90s music from Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, and Britney Spears.

Thanks to the music, we all became extremely energetic. Then some of us followed Mr. Stone on a sunrise walk on campus. The fresh air felt so good after being locked in school for a night. It wasn't even too terribly cold, and we all enjoyed our walk down from Mathews Avenue to Oregon Street.

Come Monday, I — along with half the junior and senior class — was exhausted. Nevertheless, I definitely felt that the lock-in was $20 dollars and 10 hours well spent. After all, when else will you get the chance to play dodgeball with your classmates at midnight, eat breakfast made by Mr. Stone, or be able to stand in the middle of Green Street without getting run over?