The South Quad will be turned into a driving range for charity on Tuesday.

The event, “Putting for Parkinson’s,” will allow students to buy three plastic golf balls for a $1 and hit them at various targets throughout the quad.

Local businesses are participating by buying a $25 target they can place throughout the field.

Rachel Fisher, the director of Student Community Service, as well as a project management class in the School of Business are sponsoring the event. All the proceeds will be donated toward the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Tommy Nierman, a senior business major, helped develop the project alongside Emily Ebert, a representative of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Project members from the Project Management 4850 class include Lucas Hayes, Rob Devall, Jack Ritter, Andrew Seibert and Joe Demaine, all senior business majors.

Nierman said the reason he chose the Michael J. Fox foundation was because it was the first organization to jump out at him.

“I’m a huge Back to the Future fan, anyway,” he said, “It just seemed like the right one.”

Lucas Hayes, a member of the project, said Nierman presented the idea and the project members voted on it.

“We thought it would be a pretty unique and fun way to get students involved and it’s something that hasn’t been done before on campus that I know of,” Hayes said.

The project members are hoping for more donations from local businesses, with the only donation currently coming from Pizza Hut, according to Nierman. Hayes said the project members are currently soliciting donations from local businesses as well as possible prizes, such as coupons, for when students hit a designated target at the driving range.

Jack Ritter, a member of the “Putting for Parkinson’s” project said he feels the South Quad is an ideal location for the event due to the heavy foot traffic.

“I feel like we are going to have a lot of students stop by,” Hayes said.

Nierman said he hopes to have at least a 100 students come out to support the event.

The event is required for the project management class, which Nierman said he believes is supposed to give students a more hands-on approach to the materials covered in class.

Other projects sponsored by the class include making a website for an animal shelter and a future Bingo night, Nierman said.

The “Putting for Parkinson’s” event will take place in the South Quad from noon to 6 p.m.

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].