Students who have dreamed of going on dates with football players, volleyball players or cheerleaders may have a chance at the Residence Hall Association date auction.

The Athletes Date Auction will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 25 at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

The NIU student body will be able to pre-bid online at www.dating.niu.edu. Pre-bidding will start at 8 a.m. Thursday and will end at 11 p.m. Sunday.

NIU cheerleaders and members of the football team and women’s volleyball team will be auctioned.

“Right now, we have 38 people and we’re actively recruiting more,” said Sunee Vanwyk, RHA member and organizer of the date auction.

The last standing bid from the online pre-bidding will be the starting bid on the night of the date auction. Those who plan on bidding during the auction will be able to view the starting bid on the athlete of his/her choice upon entering the auditorium.

The highest bidder for each athlete will be his/her date at a black-tie gala, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 21, 2004. A limited number of gala tickets also will be sold to students.

Proceeds from the auction and ticket sales for the banquet will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“Hopefully, we’ll raise $5,000, enough to sponsor a child,” Vanwyk said.

Vanwyk got the idea for the auction from a personal experience.

“One of my friends donated her hair to help kids,” she said. “Since I couldn’t do that, I thought it would be nice to find another way to sponsor kids for charity.”

Vanwyk worked with RHA to sponsor the auction because they are a bigger, fairly popular group on campus, she said.