Little Monsters

by Jenny Strickland

On the third floor of Putnam Hall the Ohio University Little Monsters is practicing their dance for The Mr. Empower event they will be performing at on Thursday. For an organization that is dedicated to volunteer work, it sure looks like they have a lot of fun doing it.

The Ohio University Little Monsters is an organization dedicated to spreading good through their love of pop icon, Lady Gaga. They raise funds for charity foundations Lady Gaga supports and have fun dressing up as the singer.

Parker Rom, a freshman, founded the organization fall quarter. Sarah Chadwell, treasurer of the organization remembers, “Parker thought of it in history class and contacted me. After that he Facebooked us and we all met in the Front Room. We sat there talking and had all these ideas.”

Rom, however, said he first got the idea after watching the 2010 Video Music Awards. “Born This Way [her new album] was announced and I thought, I love her, all these other people love her, she does all this charity work and all these ideas just came to me.”

To say they’ve accomplished a lot since Rom first decided to use his (and others’) Gaga-love for good would be an understatement. Rom and his fellow Gaga enthusiasts started the Little Monsters only a quarter ago, and without the aid of the student involvement fair, has already gained about 50 members, 200-some ‘Like’s on their Facebook page, and recognition from outside Athens.

“This past week the Keep A Child Alive foundation contacted us wanting to do something” Rom said. This was exceptionally exciting for the Little Monsters. The Keep A Child Alive foundation is the charity behind the recently widely publicized fundraising event they did this past fall where celebrities de-activated their Twitter accounts until a certain amount of money was raised for the foundation. Kim Kardashian even posed “dead” in a coffin for an ad they ran.

It’s undeniably impressive that the Little Monsters have been able to have such an impact in such a short period of time, and they used pretty conventional ways to generate interest in the group.  “Chalking was huge,” said Vice President, Meghan McComb. Rom added, “We didn’t originally announce that we were a charity organization. That was the surprise of the first meeting.” Other than good old-fashioned chalking, they also relied on word of mouth to gain membership.

Besides the Mr. Empower show, the Little Monsters are also hosting a Gaga Week around the Grammy’s and the release of Lady Gaga’s newest single, “Born This Way”. During the week they plan to hold a Grammy viewing party, an Arts and Crafts night at the LGBT center, a poker night, Gaga trivia, and hopefully a drag show. This quarter the Monsters will be donating to charities such as the Elton John AIDS Fund and Passion Works, a local organization.

70% of their proceeds from fundraising go to charities and 30% goes toward planning their next fundraising event. Chadwell said, “In the end, all the money goes to charity.”